How to find Carabus in winter

[wollastoni]

In Europe and North Africa, winter is a long sad period for insect collectors. No butterflies, no bees, no cetonidae, the world has lost its beauty, its magics.

We all spend time spreading our last summer treasures, arranging our collection, studying books ... but we miss the thrill of insect collecting. So we dream of exotic collecting trips, of colourful butterflies while it is rainy and cold outside.

But even in those depressing times, there are some fantastic bugs to be found even near big cities like Paris and London : Carabidae (Ground beetles) !

Here are the tips to find them :
- go to a beautiful forest where dead trees are not removed (those "natural" forests are harder and harder to find... ), can be a small wood too.
- bring a small axe tool that we call "piochon" in French. The perfect Carabidae tool is like those : www.atelierlatrouvaille.com/454-a-marteaux-de-geologue-estwing : it must be very solid but not too heavy

Then simply go to the forest and break dead tree barks with your axe. Also try under mosses.
--> you will find plenty of wonderful Carabidae some as beautiful as jewels.

Some examples I found near Paris 2 years ago, with my friend Franck Roudil :

Carabus auronitens, slightly copper form

Carabus auronitens, classic green form

Carabus problematicus

Carabidae are very interesting to collect. As they have no wings, they cannot move on large distance. With fragmentation of forests due to human activities, evolution has created hundreds of wonderful local forms. It means that each forest has some local forms, below are variations from Carabus auronitens in NW France for example. Some forms are extremely rare.

And when I talk about variations inside the same species, I mean real variations !

Thanks to Carabidae, our long winter is not a nightmare anymore !
And you, do you collect Ground Beetles ?

[deliasfanatic]

Those are wonderful! I'm not familiar with them at all.

[cabintom]

Are they just under the bark, or do you need to "dig" to find them?

[wollastoni]

No just under the bark Tom.

Have a try, it will work in Canada to ! But you have to find a forest without snow

[cabintom]

Dec 13, 2014 19:01:42 GMT wollastoni said:

But you have to find a forest without snow

LOL, not a likely prospect at the moment! Does this work in warmer weather? (ie. when I get back to Africa)

[wollastoni]

I don't think so because Carabidae do this only when they hibernate.

But I will make another how to for you to easily catch them during summer ! :-)

[pierre22]

I have, not still found the lorgensis

Pierre

[goat]

In the winter I just chase to catch the kitchen moth, freeze it, mount it, identify it and enjoy it for a week, then again the same, and over and over again.