Calosoma inquisitor (Linnaeus, 1758)

Assmann, Thorsten, Boutaud, Estève, Buse, Jörn, Drees, Claudia, Friedman, Ariel-Leib-Leonid, Hetzel, Andreas, Orbach, Eylon, Renan, Ittai, Reuter, Christoph & Wrase, David W., 2020, The Caterpillar Hunter Beetles Calosoma Weber (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in the southern Levant, Israel Journal of Entomology (Oxford, England) 50 (2), pp. 133-158 : 142-144

Calosoma inquisitor (Linnaeus, 1758)

( Figs 2C, 8)

Dispersal power: Macropterous, flight active (e.g. Lindroth 1985, 1986; pers. obs.).

Habitat: An arboreal species of deciduous, mostly oak-dominated woodlands. In Central Europe and Scandinavia, the adults hunt during daytime and feed on geometrid and tortricid caterpillars (e.g. winter moth Operophthera brumata , oak leaf roller moth Tortrix viridiana ). The larvae are ground dwellers ( Lindroth 1945, 1985;

pers. obs.). In southern Europe, also in evergreen oak woodlands (e.g. Quercus ilex ) (cf. Vigna-Taglianti 1993; Pisano & Delunas 1998; pers. obs.).

Phenology: In Central, northern and southern Europe reproduction in spring and early summer. Newly hatched beetles appear in autumn, adults hibernate. Beetles can live up to three years ( Larsson 1939; Lindroth 1945, 1985).

Distribution range: From Scandinavia to southern Europe and north-western Africa ( Morocco), eastwards to Iran (nominate subspecies) and East Siberia and China (C.

i. cyanescens (Motschulsky, 1859)) ( Breuning 1927; Bruschi 2013; HÄckel 2017). Not recorded by Bousquet et al. (2003), Buschi (2013) and HÄckel (2017) from most North African countries, Syria and Lebanon, but Breuning (1927) mentions the species also from Algeria and Tunisia.

Distribution range in southern Levant: Breuning (1927: 167) summarized records from Lebanon (Beirut and Anti-Lebanon Mountains).The subspecies C. i. viridulum Kraatz, 1877 , now regarded as an older synonym of the nominate subspecies ( Bruschi 2013), was described from Beirut. The Mt Hermon belongs to the Anti-Lebanon mountain range, and it is possible that the species occurs in Israel (Hermon, Golan Heights , Upper Galilee).The preferred oak-feeding moth species (see Habitat above) also occur in Israel and Lebanon.