Forest caterpillar hunter
The forest caterpillar hunter is a big ground beetle with shiny metal-green wing cases. In the light its colours shimmer green, blue, copper and gold. Unlike most ground beetles, it climbs up into the trees to hunt.
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Fun facts
Both the grown-up beetles and their babies live up in the trees.
It hunts in the daytime.
It loves caterpillars that eat oak and pine leaves, so it helps protect forests.
In 1905 people brought it from Europe to New England to fight a caterpillar that was eating the trees.
Most asked questions about Forest caterpillar hunter
?What does the forest caterpillar hunter eat?
Caterpillars, especially ones that eat tree leaves.
?How big is the forest caterpillar hunter?
About 2 to 3.5 centimetres long, a big beetle.
?Is the forest caterpillar hunter good for the garden?
Yes. It eats caterpillars that damage trees, so foresters are happy to have it.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Calosoma sycophanta
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Carabidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Carabidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia, North America
Where the facts come from
- Calosoma sycophanta (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Thomas Huntke , Germany (the uploader). Contact through: http://www.huntke.de. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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