#calosoma

[onenicebugperday]

Happy pride to this gay bug

GAY BEETLE ALERT

[herpsandbirds]

Fiery Searcher aka Caterpillar Hunter (Calosoma scrutator), family Carabidae, eastern U.S.

photograph by John Muller

[skunky-boiii]

A small info sheet on the Calosoma Scrutator one of my FAVORITE beetles!

I found my first specimen of this variety in my friends trash can, and I brought it home to examine it! Doing little info sheets like this helps me remember everything I learned (I did a bunch of research, and I put it all in one place)

Below, I'll attach an image of the specimen I dug through the trash for 😅

I just wish I had gotten my phone camera lens fixed before I tried to take any images 🥲

[usgsbiml]

Fiery Searcher.  #Calosoma scrutator dresses in irridescence and hunts caterpillars. Big, fast, and spectacular.  Also bad tasting, so they can afford to look bright and shiny.  Here is the lesson: If you are bright and shiny, carry bear repellent.  #beetle

[platycryptus]

cold-country caterpillar hunter (Calosoma frigidum)

A large carabid beetle that specializes in eating caterpillars, C. frigidum is found in cold boreal and montane forests. This one was found near a mountain summit in New Hampshire.

interestingly enough, C. frigidum is more closely related to certain species of Calosoma found in boreal Eurasia than it is to any of its local relatives, suggesting that its ability to survive in the far north allowed it to cross over to North America relatively recently.

[onenicebugperday]

@excessivechaos submitted: Can you ID this beetle that I found in a football stadium around [removed]? (please remove location!) I think that it was a Fiery Searcher, but I'm really not that sure. What I did make sure of was that he was taken to safety, though! He's banned from watching anymore games, but just for his own wellbeing.

What an extremely beautiful football fan! Definitely a fiery searcher, their colors are pretty distinctive. 10/10 great lookin fella.

[herpsandbirds]

Fiery Searcher aka Caterpillar Hunter (Calosoma scrutator), family Carabidae, eastern United States

photograph by John Muller

[onenicebugperday]

@celestial-citrus submitted: i found this little fella while i was doing yard work! it's really colorful, never seen one like it. found in central jersey

Ohohohho look at them go!! And what lovely rainbow colors. It's definitely a carabid ground beetle, and I think most likely an agreeable caterpillar hunter, Calosoma sycophanta!