Smooth ground beetle
| Smooth ground beetle | ||||||||||||
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Smooth ground beetle ( Carabus glabratus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Carabus glabratus | ||||||||||||
| Paykull , 1790 |
The smooth ground beetle ( Carabus glabratus ) is a beetle from the family of ground beetles (Carabidae).
features
The beetles are 22 to 35 millimeters long and have a dark blue to black body with a matt sheen. The oval, strongly arched wings are unstriped but very finely wrinkled. The pronotum is 1.5 times wider than it is long and has curved edges. The sternites of the abdomen each have a small furrow. The similar violet ground beetle ( C. violaceus ) differs from the smooth ground beetle in its narrow pronotum, the different coloration of the edge of the wings and the penultimate limb of the labial palp , which has more than two bristles. In addition, in contrast to C. violaceus , C. glabratus has a pair of bristles on the submentum .
Similar species
- Violet ground beetle ( Carabus violaceus )
Occurrence
The animals occur in Europe east to the Urals . To the north, their distribution extends across the Arctic Circle . They live in light, moist deciduous and mixed forests , on the banks of forest streams and in forest moors. They can be found on dead wood and in moss. They occur from the lowlands up to an altitude of about 2,000 meters from July to October.
Way of life
The adults are primarily nocturnal, but they also come out when it rains during the day. They predatory feed on small animals such as insects , worms, and snails . The larvae molt three times until they pupate in a burrow. Both the larvae and the old beetles overwinter between moss, or in cracks in dead wood and tree stumps.
literature
- Ekkehard Wachmann , Ralph Platen, Dieter Barndt: Ground beetles - observation, way of life , Naturbuch-Verlag Augsburg, 1995, ISBN 3-89440-125-7
