Big-headed ground beetle
The big-headed ground beetle is a shiny black beetle with huge jaws at the front. Its front legs are made for digging, so it spends lots of time burrowing in soil and hiding under logs and rocks. At night it comes out to hunt.
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Fun facts
When it gets scared, it stiffens up, tucks in its legs and plays dead until danger is gone.
Each of its big jaws has two teeth.
It loves light and is often found under porch lamps at night.
Birds such as robins, bluebirds and cardinals like to eat it.
Most asked questions about Big-headed ground beetle
?Is the big-headed ground beetle dangerous?
No. It is harmless to people. It hunts other bugs, not us.
?What does the big-headed ground beetle eat?
Other small animals like insects and worms. In captivity it eats mealworms.
?Why does the beetle pretend to be dead?
Playing dead helps it trick hungry animals until it is safe to run away.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Scarites subterraneus
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Carabidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Carabidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Pedunculate ground beetle, Tunneling large pedunculate ground beetle
Where the facts come from
- Scarites subterraneus (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 Kaldari. CC0, 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 [email protected] and we will fix it.
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