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Sticker of Cold-country caterpillar hunter
Bug card No. 0964 of 4,939

Cold-country caterpillar hunter

Calosoma frigidum

The cold-country caterpillar hunter is a big black ground beetle. Its wing covers have rows of little pits that shine blue and green. It hunts at night and hides away during the day.

Lives in
Southern Canada and the United States, in woods
Length
1.6 to 2.7 cm (0.63 to 1.1 in)
Top speed
about 1.5 km/h (0.93 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is a hunter of small creatures and leaves people alone.
What does it eat?
It is a hunter. As its name says, it likes to catch caterpillars.
For real!Photo of Cold-country caterpillar hunter
Picture by iNaturalist Canada user: christine123. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Cold-country caterpillar hunter about 2.7 cm long (1.1 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 4 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 2.4 seconds

How big is Cold-country caterpillar hunter compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The shiny blue green pits on its back are bigger than on many of its relatives.

2

During the day it hides under fallen leaves, bark and other bits on the forest floor.

3

When the ground gets very hot, for example after a forest fire, the beetles leave their burrows.

4

It can be up to 2.7 centimetres long, about as long as a grape.

you asked

Most asked questions about Cold-country caterpillar hunter

?What does the cold-country caterpillar hunter eat?

It hunts other small animals, especially caterpillars.

?How big is the cold-country caterpillar hunter?

About 1.6 to 2.7 centimetres long.

?When is it active?

At night. In the daytime it hides under leaves and bark.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Calosoma frigidum
Named by
Kirby, 1837
Group
Beetles
Family
Carabidae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Carabidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Calosoma frigidum (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by iNaturalist Canada user: christine123. CC BY 4.0, 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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More from the same group: Beetles

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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