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Blue Ground Beetle – Carabus Intricatus
In the Cornish Times published 17th May 2002 it was reported that David Blake, a Forest Ranger for the Forestry Commission had discovered that the woods at Herodsfoot were home to a very rare beetle known as Carabus Intricatus.
The Blue Ground Beetle eats tree slugs at night.The beetle tracks its prey by following the slug’s slime trail.
The beetle likes to live in very damp moss covered dead wood in mature beech and oak woodland. If anything attacks the beetle whilst it is feeding on its prey, the beetle squirts a foul smelling liquid at the attacker.
It is a large beetle, with an attractive metallic blue sheen to it. It does not have proper flight wings, but does have 'typical' beetle wing cases. Important in identifying this beetle, these wing cases have a rough surface. It was only recorded three times in the twenty years prior to 1993 and was considered extinct in Britain until a specimen was found in 1994. In the UK is has always been considered rare, known from only 12 sites in Devon and Cornwall. In 1994, it was found in just two small woodlands, on the edge of Dartmoor but, by 2000, it had also been found at a total of six sites, one near the two Dartmoor sites and three on the edge of Bodmin Moor, the latest being Deerpark Forest, Herodsfoot in 2002.
There is a more common ground beetle that can be found in the woods that is called the Violet Ground Beetle. It is very similar to the rarer Blue Ground Beetle, but is not as large and its wing cases are very much smoother in appearance.
The Blue Ground Beetle can measure form 25 to 38 mm. The Violet Ground Beetle is smaller and measures from 20 to 30 mm.
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