''Carabus auronitens'' is a species of

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

in family

Carabidae Ground beetles are a large, cosmopolitan 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 is one of the 10 most species-rich animal ...

which was described by

Johan Christian Fabricius Johann Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745 – 3 March 1808) was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is co ...

in 1792.

Subspecies

Subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

include: BioLib.cz
/ref> *''Carabus auronitens auronitens'' Fabricius, 1792 *''Carabus auronitens costellatus'' Géhin, 1882 *''Carabus auronitens cupreonitens'' Chevrolat, 1861 *''Carabus auronitens escheri'' Palliardi, 1825 *''Carabus auronitens farinesi'' Dejean, 1826 *''Carabus auronitens festivus'' Dejean, 1826 *''Carabus auronitens intercostatus'' Gredler, 1854 *''Carabus auronitens kraussi'' Lapouge, 1898 *''Carabus auronitens montanus'' Géhin, 1882 *''Carabus auronitens punctatoauratus'' Germar, 1824

Description

This species grows to a size of . The

elytra An elytron (; ; : elytra, ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometime ...

and the head are shiny, with different colours: red golden, red green or more rarely blue. The

prothorax 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 (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum ( ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on ...

is narrow at the base and reddish copper in colour. The colours are very variable from one specimen to another. Each

elytron An elytron (; ; : elytra, ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometimes ...

has a granular surface with three sturdy, dark longitudinal veins. The legs are black, except the

femora The femur (; : femurs or femora ), or thigh bone is the only bone in the thigh — the region of the lower limb between the hip and the knee. In many four-legged animals the femur is the upper bone of the hindleg. The top of the femur fits in ...

, which are red. The antennae are also black but the first segments are red. This species can be distinguished from ''

Carabus auratus ''Carabus auratus'', the golden ground beetle, is a species of ground beetle in the genus Carabus. This species is native to central and western Europe and has been introduced into North America. Description The flightless beetle reaches a body ...

'', 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 Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

and

western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

. It is absent from

northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other ge ...

as well as south of the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...

in western Europe. This species lives in humid, cool

deciduous forest In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, after flo ...

s and

mixed forest Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. These ...

s, 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 . In western Europe it is also found in plains.

Life cycle

Adults appear from May to September. The

imago In biology, the imago (Latin for "image") is the last stage an insect attains during its metamorphosis, its process of growth and development; it is also called the ''imaginal'' stage ("imaginal" being "imago" in adjective form), the stage in wh ...

is mainly nocturnal and predates on smaller animals such as

snail A snail is a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gas ...

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateria, bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limb (anatomy), limbs, and usually no eyes. Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine ...

s or

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

s. The larva climbs up trees to about and

pupate A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages the ...

s 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.

Gallery

File: Carabidae - Carabus auronitens auronitens (female).jpg, ''Carabus auronitens auronitens''. Female File:Golden Ground Beetle (Carabus auronitens auronitens) hibernating in dead wood (13537438064).jpg, ''Carabus auronitens auronitens'' hibernating in dead wood File:Golden Ground Beetle (Chrysocarabus auronitens festivus) close-up (8337429291).jpg, ''Carabus auronitens festivus'' File:Carabus auronitens escheri Palliardi, 1825.jpg, ''Carabus auronitens escheri''

References

External links

Natur in Nordrhein-Westfalens INPN
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1535734 Beetles described in 1792 Beetles of Europe auronitens Taxa named by Johan Christian Fabricius