Calosoma sycophanta

Calosoma sycophanta, the forest caterpillar hunter, is a species of ground beetle belonging to the family Carabidae.

Subspecies and varietas

 * Calosoma sycophanta var. severum Chaudoir, 1850
 * Calosoma sycophanta var. nigrocyaneum Letzner, 1850
 * Calosoma sycophanta var. marginatum Letzner, 1850
 * Calosoma sycophanta var. azureum Letzner, 1850
 * Calosoma sycophanta var. purpureoaureum Letzner, 1850
 * Calosoma sycophanta var. cupreum Letzner, 1850
 * Callipara sycophanta rapax Motschoulsky, 1865
 * Calosoma sycophanta var. smaragdinum Rossi, 1882
 * Calosoma sycophanta var. habelmanni Schilsky, 1888
 * Calosoma sycophanta var. purpuripenne Reitter, 1891
 * Calosoma sycophanta ab. corvinum Heller, 1897
 * Calosoma sycophanta ab. anthracinum Houlbert, 1907
 * Calosoma sycophanta prasinum Lapouge, 1907
 * Calosoma sycophanta ab. solinfectum Jänichen, 1914
 * Calosoma sycophanta var. lapougei Breuning, 1927
 * Calosoma (Callipara) sycophanta, Lapouge, 1932
 * Calosoma sycophanta nigrosuturale Jaquet, 1930
 * Calosoma sycophanta nigroaeneum Polentz, 1937
 * Calosoma (Calosoma) sycophanta, Jeannel, 1940
 * Calosoma (Calosoma) sycophanta, Gidaspow, 1959
 * Calosoma (Calosoma) sycophanta, Deuve, 1997
 * Calosoma (Calosoma) sycophanta, Erwin, 2007

Description
Calosoma sycophanta can reach a length of about 21 - 35 mm. This large ground beetle has characteristic metallic bright green elytra, while scutellum is metallic bluish. The head is black. These colours have iridescent shades that change (green, blue, bronze, copper, gold black) according to the direction and quality of light. Pronotum is transverse shaped, posteriorly sharply narrowed, wrinkled and punctured. Elytra are flattened with clearly visible punctures in the striae.

Behavior
This ground beetle is a voracious consumer of caterpillars (especially Lymantria dispar, Thaumetopoea processionea, Thaumetopoea pityocampa and Euproctis chrysorrhoea) during both its larval stage and as an adult.

As a predator the species has been researched for the effect of its predation upon the caterpillars with microsporidian pathogens, finding a preference for Vairimorpha disparis infected larva.

Distribution
This species is native to Europe. It is present in most European countries, in the eastern Palearctic realm, in the Nearctic realm, in the Near East, and in North Africa. In 1905 it was imported to New England for control of the gypsy moth.