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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Adephaga » Ground Beetles (Carabidae) » Carabinae » Carabini » Caterpillar Hunter Beetles (Calosoma) » Subgenus Callitropa (Calosoma Subgenus Callitropa) » Narrow Searcher (Calosoma externum)

Species Calosoma externum - Narrow Searcher

Classification · Explanation of Names · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Season · Food · Life Cycle · See Also · Works Cited

Calosoma externum - Narrow Searcher - Calosoma externum

Black ground beetle with blue outline - Calosoma externum

C. externum southern Iowa - Calosoma externum

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Coleoptera (Beetles)

Suborder Adephaga

Family Carabidae (Ground Beetles)

Subfamily Carabinae

Tribe Carabini

Genus Calosoma (Caterpillar Hunter Beetles)

No Taxon (Subgenus Callitropa)

Species externum (Narrow Searcher)

Explanation of Names

Calosoma externum (Say 1825)

Size

24-35 mm (1) (2)

Identification

Very large, black with margins of elytra and pronotum brilliant blue. Elytra with evenly-spaced rows of punctured grooves (striae) and a few large punctures (foveae). Pronotum rounded, not flared out on the apical (head) end.

Resembles Carabus sylvosus, which is smaller, and has a differently-shaped pronotum--more flared on the apical end.

Range

e. US (VT-GA to NE-TX); strays into southernmost ON(3)

Habitat

Woodlands and adjacent open country

Season

May & Jul-Aug in NC (4); May & Sep-Oct in SC (1); May-Oct in IN(5)

Food

Adults predatory, climb trees in search of prey, esp. caterpillars.

Life Cycle

Adults hibernate

See Also

Carabus, e.g. C. sylvosus

Works Cited

1.	Ground Beetles and Wrinkled Bark Beetles of South Carolina Janet Ciegler. 2000. Clemson University.

2.	North American caterpillar hunters of the genera Calosoma and Callisthenes (Coleoptera, Carabidae) Gidaspow, T. 1959. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 116: 225-343.

3.	Catalogue of Geadephaga (Coleoptera, Adephaga) of America, north of Mexico Bousquet Y. 2012. ZooKeys 245: 1–1722.

4.	Insects of North Carolina C.S. Brimley. 1938. North Carolina Department of Agriculture.

5.	An illustrated descriptive catalogue of the Coleoptera or beetles (exclusive of the Rhynchophora) known to occur in Indiana. Blatchley, W. S. 1910. Indianapolis,Nature Pub. Co.

Contributed by Cotinis on 20 May, 2004 - 4:57pm
Additional contributions by Mike Quinn, v belov
Last updated 2 February, 2021 - 3:33pm

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