What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Snail Eater

Posted by October 14th, 2009 at 6:03 am

Categories

Ground Beetles

Big black beetle
October 13, 2009
Saw this big black beetle in September 2009 crawling in the leaf litter of the forest floor just north of Mendocino, California. It was approximately 1.75 inches long from the tip of its head to the rear of its carapace. When I discovered it and started taking photos, it didn’t scurry away; it slowly and methodically crawled away and hid under forest floor detritus.
Thanks for any help info you may have,
Mendocino California

snail eater mendocino 232x300 Snail Eater

Snail Eater

This is some species of Snail Eater, a Ground Beetle in the genus Scaphinotus.  We don’t feel qualified to take the identification to the species level with the information provided on BugGuide, especially since some species are represented by a single photograph from California.  We might suggest that you also submit  your photo to bugGuide in the hopes that you can get a species identification.

Update from Eric Eaton
Daniel:
I’d need to see the specimen of the snail-eater to key it out to species….
Eric

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