Carabus auronitens
Encyclopedia
Carabus auronitens is a species of beetle
in family Carabidae.
is narrow at the base and reddish-copper in colour. The colours are very variable from one specimen to another. Each elytron
has a granular surface with three sturdy, dark longitudinal veins. The legs are black, except the femora, which are red. The antenna
e are also black but the first segments are red.
This species can be distinguished from Carabus auratus
, a similar species, by its longitudinal veins and its antennae: Carabus auratus has green-gold veins and its first four antenna segments are red.
, Eastern Europe
and Western Europe
. It is absent from northern Europe
as well as south of the Pyrenees
in western Europe. It lives in humid, cool deciduous forests and mixed forests, and also in unwooded areas at high elevations. It can be found under loose bark or in dead wood, and also in bogs,especially in mountains or in foreland up to 2500 metres (8,202.1 ft). In western Europe it is also found in plains. It appears from May to September.
is mainly nocturnal and predates on smaller animals such as snail
s, worm
s or insect
s. The larva climbs up trees to about 7 metres (23 ft) and pupates after three moults
. Hatching occurs near the end of summer or the beginning of autumn. They then spend the winter under bark, in gaps in dead wood as well as in tree stubs and will be active the following year.
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
in family Carabidae.
Description
This species grows to a size of 18–32 mm (0.708661417322835–1.3 ). The elytra and the head are shiny, with different colours: red-golden, red-green or more rarely blue. The prothoraxProthorax
The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites are the pronotum , the prosternum , and the propleuron on each side. The prothorax never bears wings in extant insects, though some fossil groups possessed...
is narrow at the base and reddish-copper in colour. The colours are very variable from one specimen to another. Each elytron
Elytron
An elytron is a modified, hardened forewing of certain insect orders, notably beetles and a few of the true bugs ; in most true bugs, the forewings are instead called hemelytra, as only the basal half is thickened while the apex is membranous...
has a granular surface with three sturdy, dark longitudinal veins. The legs are black, except the femora, which are red. The antenna
Antenna (biology)
Antennae in biology have historically been paired appendages used for sensing in arthropods. More recently, the term has also been applied to cilium structures present in most cell types of eukaryotes....
e are also black but the first segments are red.
This species can be distinguished from Carabus auratus
Carabus auratus
Carabus auratus, the golden ground beetle, is a member of the family Carabidae, or ground beetles, native to central and western parts of Europe.-Description:...
, a similar species, by its longitudinal veins and its antennae: Carabus auratus has green-gold veins and its first four antenna segments are red.
Distribution and habitat
This species is found in Central EuropeCentral Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
, Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
and Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
. It is absent from northern Europe
Northern Europe
Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. Northern Europe typically refers to the seven countries in the northern part of the European subcontinent which includes Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland and Sweden...
as well as south of the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
in western Europe. It lives in humid, cool deciduous forests and mixed forests, and also in unwooded areas at high elevations. It can be found under loose bark or in dead wood, and also in bogs,especially in mountains or in foreland up to 2500 metres (8,202.1 ft). In western Europe it is also found in plains. It appears from May to September.
Life cycle
The imagoImago
In biology, the imago is the last stage of development of an insect, after the last ecdysis of an incomplete metamorphosis, or after emergence from the pupa where the metamorphosis is complete...
is mainly nocturnal and predates on smaller animals such as snail
Snail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...
s, worm
Worm
The term worm refers to an obsolete taxon used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old English word wyrm. Currently it is used to describe many different distantly-related animals that typically have a long cylindrical...
s or insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s. The larva climbs up trees to about 7 metres (23 ft) and pupates after three moults
Ecdysis
Ecdysis is the moulting of the cuticula in many invertebrates. This process of moulting is the defining feature of the clade Ecdysozoa, comprising the arthropods, nematodes, velvet worms, horsehair worms, rotifers, tardigrades and Cephalorhyncha...
. Hatching occurs near the end of summer or the beginning of autumn. They then spend the winter under bark, in gaps in dead wood as well as in tree stubs and will be active the following year.