Metallic harpalus
Harpalus affinis
The metallic harpalus is a ground beetle that shines like a jewel. Its back gleams bronze, green or blue in the sunlight. It runs fast across fields and gardens.
Lives in
Almost all of Europe and across to Siberia, and brought to Canada and New Zealand, in fields and gardens
Length
0.8 to 1.2 cm (0.33 to 0.47 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not sting and is happy to run away.
What does it eat?
Ground beetles like it eat seeds and also small creatures they find on the ground.
How big is it?
How long is it?
🍚as long as 2 grains of rice in a row🍽️could run across a dinner table in 3.7 seconds⚡moves 23 times its own body length every second
How big is Metallic harpalus compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Metallic harpalus about 0.98 km/h (0.61 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It was brought to North America and now lives in Canada from coast to coast.
2
It arrived in New Zealand in the 1970s and settled there.
3
Its newly hatched larva is only 4 millimetres long and has a small orange head.
4
It takes about three months for the larva to grow up.
you asked
Most asked questions about Metallic harpalus
?Is the metallic harpalus dangerous?
No. It is a harmless ground beetle that runs away if you get close.
?How big is the metallic harpalus?
It is about 1 centimetre long, about as big as a fingernail.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Harpalus affinis
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Carabidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Carabidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, North America, Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Harpalus affinis (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 Birgit E. Rhode, Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd.. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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