Calosoma sycophanta
Calosoma sycophanta, the forest caterpillar hunter, is a species of ground beetle belonging to the family Carabidae.
Subspecies and varietas
Calosoma sycophanta var. severum Chaudoir, 1850Calosoma sycophanta var. nigrocyaneum Letzner, 1850Calosoma sycophanta var. marginatum Letzner, 1850Calosoma sycophanta var. azureum Letzner, 1850Calosoma sycophanta var. purpureoaureum Letzner, 1850Calosoma sycophanta var. cupreum Letzner, 1850Callipara sycophanta rapax Motschoulsky, 1865Calosoma sycophanta var. smaragdinum Rossi, 1882Calosoma sycophanta var. habelmanni Schilsky, 1888Calosoma sycophanta var. purpuripenne Reitter, 1891Calosoma sycophanta prasinum Lapouge, 1907Calosoma sycophanta var. lapougei Breuning, 1927Calosoma sycophanta nigrosuturale Jaquet, 1930Calosoma sycophanta nigroaeneum Polentz, 1937Description
Calosoma sycophanta can reach a length of about. This large ground beetle has characteristic metallic bright green elytra, while scutellum is metallic bluish. The head is black. These colours have iridescent shades that change according to the direction and quality of light. Pronotum is transverse shaped, posteriorly sharply narrowed, wrinkled and punctured. Elytra are flattened with clearly visible punctures in the striae.Behavior
This ground beetle is a voracious consumer of caterpillars during both its larval stage and as an adult.As a predator the species has been researched for the effect of its predation upon the caterpillars with microsporidian pathogens, finding a preference for Vairimorpha disparis infected larva.