Rain beetle
The rain beetle is a shiny black ground beetle with fine straight grooves on its back. It runs around on the ground hunting other small creatures. Farmers like it, because it eats slugs and other pests.
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Fun facts
Some rain beetles have full wings and can fly, while others have short wings and can only walk.
It walks about 2.5 to 5 metres a day, and more in summer when it looks for a mate.
It finds its food mostly by smell.
A female lays about 130 eggs at a time, in shady, wet places.
Hungry beetles stay away from places where other rain beetles have already hunted.
Most asked questions about Rain beetle
?Is the rain beetle harmful?
No. It is harmless to people and eats garden pests like slugs.
?What does the rain beetle eat?
Slugs, snails, ants, caterpillars, and also seeds and plants.
?How big is the rain beetle?
About 12 to 18 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Pterostichus melanarius
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Carabidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Carabidae
- Lives on
- Europe, North America
Where the facts come from
- Pterostichus melanarius (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 Kipling Will. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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