Calosoma inquisitor
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Calosoma inquisitor (the lesser searcher beetle or caterpillar-hunter) is a species of ground beetle. The species is found in northern Africa, Europe (northward to southern Scandinavia) and East to Asia Minor, Iran and the Caucasus, with isolated populations in eastern Siberia and Japan (although these are also treated as a separate species Calosoma cyanescens by some authors).
The imagines are predatory on various insects and their larvae, especially, feed on Lepidoptera larvae. They can fly well and are found not only on the ground, but also in bushes and on trees. In case of danger the beetle can fall and then threaten by lifting up the front body and spreading the mandibles. The females lay about 50 eggs. The hatching larvae are also predatory and develop very quickly. They're in the ground. The beetles emerge in June, but still linger in a diapause until next spring in the ground. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
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More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Searcher Beetle sighting in Kharkiv on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 235th most-seen of the 289 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Searcher Beetle in Kharkiv on a given day, against under 5% in June to April, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lesser Searcher Beetle sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 6 cities where we can rate Lesser Searcher Beetle sightings, Kharkiv has the highest daily chance: about 10%. Next come Kyiv (Ukraine, about 10%) and Budapest (Hungary, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lesser Searcher Beetle is recorded against all the insects logged in Kharkiv (6 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
