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Calosoma
Calosoma is a genus of large ground beetles that occur primarily throughout the Northern Hemisphere, and are referred to as caterpillar hunters or searchers. Many of the 167 species are largely or entirely black, but some have bright metallic coloration. They produce a foul-smelling spray from glands near the tip of the abdomen. They are recognizable due to their large thorax, which is almost the size of their abdomen and much wider than their head.
5 branches of this group, most-observed first

Agreeable Caterpillar Hunter
speciesCalosoma sycophanta

Lesser Searcher Beetle
speciesCalosoma inquisitor

Cold-country Caterpillar Hunter
speciesCalosoma frigidum

Calosoma maximowiczi
speciesCalosoma maximowiczi

Calosoma himalayanum
speciesCalosoma himalayanum
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Calosoma in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 827209.