''Acanthoscelis ruficornis'', Beach ground beetle is a species of

ground beetle Ground beetles are a large, cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan family (biology), family of beetles, the Carabidae, with more than 40,000 species worldwide, around 2,000 of which are found in North America and 2,700 in Europe. As of 2015, it i ...

in the

Scaritinae Scaritinae is a subfamily of beetles in the family Carabidae, containing the following genera: * '' Acanthoscelis'' Dejean, 1825 * '' Afroclivina'' Kult, 1959 * '' Afrosyleter'' Basilewsky, 1959 * '' Akephorus'' LeConte, 1851 * '' Alpiodytes'' Je ...

subfamily, the only species in the genus ''Acanthoscelis''.

Description

''A. ruficornis'' is long and have black coloured legs and reddish tarsi. Its head and

thorax The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the cre ...

are wrinkled while its antennae is of the same colour as its tarsi. It also have front

tibia The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...

which is broad and flattened.

Ecology

When it comes to feeding, ''A. ruficornis'' is a night predator. During that time he feeds on various species of

Isopoda Isopoda is an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice and their relatives. Isopods live in the sea, in fresh water, or on land. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons, two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed limbs on the thorax, an ...

and

Amphipoda Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far desc ...

as well as both adult and larva

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s. It inhabits beaches where there is plenty of sand and hides under

seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of '' Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...

References

Scaritinae {{Scaritinae-stub