''Carabus auratus'', the golden 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 genus

Carabus ''Carabus'' is a genus of beetles in family Carabidae. The genus is highly diverse with 94 subgenera, 897 species and 2300 subspecies, thus is the largest genus in the subfamily Carabinae.Deuve T.; Cruaud, A.; Genson, G.; and Rasplus, J.Y. (2012 ...

. This species is native to central and western

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and has been introduced into

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

Description

The flightless beetle reaches a body length between 1.7 and 2.0 cm. The

elytra An elytron (; ; , ) 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 alterna ...

, each marked with three broad longitudinal grooves, are an iridescent gold-green colour, as are the 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 ...

. The legs, antennae and mouth parts are orange. ''C. auratus'' is found in fields and amongst bushes, particularly on loamy soil. On occasion, it climbs into trees. Active during the day, it preys upon

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 ...

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

s, and

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wor ...

s, which it seizes with its

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

s and sprays with a digestive secretion before consuming it. ''C. auratus'' can be welcome to farmers and gardeners, as it feeds upon pests such as the

Colorado potato beetle The Colorado potato beetle (''Leptinotarsa decemlineata''), also known as the Colorado beetle, the ten-striped spearman, the ten-lined potato beetle, or the potato bug, is a major pest of potato crops. It is about long, with a bright yellow/o ...

. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e hunt only at dawn. They moult three times before pupating in the soil and then emerging as adults in the autumn. The beetles' life expectancy is around two years; they overwinter under the shelter of stones or moss.

Subspecies

* ''Carabus auratus auratus''

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

, 1761 * ''Carabus auratus honnoratii'' Dejean, 1826 * ''Carabus auratus lasserrei'' Doué, 1855 * ''Carabus auratus lotharingus'' Dejean, 1826 * ''Carabus auratus piolitensis'' J.P.Thélot & G.Thélot, 2019

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1535889 auratus Beetles of Europe Beetles described in 1761 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus