Black caterpillar hunter
Calosoma sayi

The black caterpillar hunter is a large, shiny black ground beetle. Its wing covers have rows of tiny ruby red dots. As its name says, it is a fast hunter of caterpillars.
Lives in
Throughout the United States, in fields, grasslands, forests and disturbed places
Length
2.5 to 2.8 cm (0.98 to 1.1 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It is busy hunting caterpillars.
What does it eat?
Both the adults and the larvae eat caterpillars, grubs and the young of flies, butterflies and moths.

How big is it?
How long is it?
๐as long as 5 grains of rice in a row๐ฝ๏ธcould run across a dinner table in 2.4 seconds
How big is Black caterpillar hunter 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)
Black caterpillar hunter about 1.5 km/h (0.93 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 is a fast runner with long legs.
2
It hunts mostly at night and hides under stones, leaves or wood in the daytime.
3
Its babies are hunters too.
4
The red dots on its back are actually tiny pits.
you asked
Most asked questions about Black caterpillar hunter
?What does the black caterpillar hunter eat?
Caterpillars, grubs and other insect larvae and pupae.
?When is the black caterpillar hunter active?
Mostly at night. During the day it hides under stones, leaves or wood.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Calosoma sayi
- Named by
- Dejean, 1826
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Carabidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Carabidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Say's caterpillar hunter
Where the facts come from
- Calosoma sayi (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 Insects Unlocked. CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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