metallic green ground beetle larger
February 9, 2010
It was found in Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Wilmington, Illinois. Just thought it was neat. It is laying next to a ruler with centimeters. Thanks!
Beth R.
Illinois
Hi Beth,
WE believe this is a Caterpillar Hunter in the genus Calosoma, possibly Calosoma sycophanta, a European species that was introduced to help control the invasive exotic Gypsy Moth. BioLib has numerous photos for comparison. We wrote to Eric Eaton for his opinion.
Daniel:
Sorry, I disagree. It is not even in the Calosoma genus. Something much smaller, but I don’t recognize it. Carabidae are pretty tough, for me anyway.
Eric
Update: January 2, 2017
Thanks to a comment, we believe this may be Agonum cupripenne which is pictured on BugGuide.
This is some kind of harpalinae. It’s hard to identify the species if you don’t have the specimen but you could try:)
Agonum cupripenne
Thanks for the correction.