Calosoma sycophanta
Calosoma ( Calosoma sycophanta )
The Big Doll robber ( Calosoma sycophanta ) is a beetle of the family of ground beetles ( Carabidae ) and belongs to the genus of the dolls robber ( Calosoma ).
Features
The Big Doll robber with 17.5 to 28 millimeters in body length, the largest species of dolls robbers in Europe. It is usually colored blue black and has gold green and slightly reddish, longitudinally grooved wing covers. In some specimens the elytra are mainly red, violet the head and pronotum, or the body black and only the edges of the elytra green. The margin of the pronotum is very rounded and lined throughout. Between the grooves of the elytra larger dots are visible.
Occurrence
The animals come across the Palaearctic, before with the exception of the far north. In North America and to Java they were introduced for biological pest control in the early 20th century. They live in coniferous and deciduous forests and at the edges, sometimes in gardens or on the coast. They are found from the plains to a height of about 1,500 meters. In Austria, the species is widespread, but rare.
Way of life
The Big Doll robbers are diurnal predators and climb on the hunt on the trees. Their diet consists mainly of caterpillars and pupae of butterflies and sawflies. In a season a beetle eats about 400 caterpillars. The larvae feed on prey on caterpillars and pupae. Overwintering takes place as a full-grown animal in the soil, the beetles are up to three years old.
Biological pest control
The idea of pest control with the help of the beetles apparently goes back to the French scientist Reaumur. His proposal was realized in the years 1905-1910. Approximately 6,000 dolls robbers were brought to be used against the gypsy moth ( Lymantria dispar ) and the gold After ( Euproctis chrysorrhoea ) from Europe to America. The previously increased further animals have spread rapidly in North America.
Even Linnaeus has dealt with this idea:
I tried to get seeds from these to scatter it under the trees, but when I caught the larger Carabos and put in boxes, in the opinion to get seeds from them, they have devoured each other. Going to daylight saving time in dense forests where logs and stumps lying around almost rotten, and tears to this divisive, one finds a lot of larger Carabis who live here and lay their eggs. These should be carefully and, as whole pieces you can get, take, and put them in the garden, near the trees, preferably on the north side, so that the rotten wood came to rest halfway into the ground, half above. In this way the Carabos obtained in the garden, the plants do no harm, but climb every night on the trees and there cruelly manipulate the caterpillars and destroy them there in a short time. This is one of the chief means which were not so, but helps in the first years of the second and third; However, after a few years it is to be renewed.
Importance of the scientific name
While Calosoma pronounce an aesthetic judgment (Greek kalos "beautiful" soma " body " ), was a sycophant (Gr. sykophantēs, sycophanta Latinized ) in Athens a " strict watchdog" - similar to the (Latin ) inquisitor ( "Through the viewfinder ").