Violet Ground Beetle
There are thousands of species of beetle in the UK and more than 260,000 worldwide.
The Violet Ground Beetle is an amazing creature, a nocturnal invertebrate which eats slugs, worms and other insects of a similar size. It is found under rocks, stones, leaf litter, hedgerows and scrub areas. They don’t fly but are very fast on the ground and are extremely strong for their size. The larvae stay in the ground for 10 months and are carnivorous. They become active in October, in March the following year they become adults. The adults have a violet sheen around their shell and have 6 legs that have pointed like knives on them. These are used for holding onto things and cleaning themselves. They normally grow up to 35mm or 3.5 cm though you can sometimes find them bigger. They have 2 antennae and 2 big sharp claws at the front its head. They also have 2 pairs of little sensors just wide of their claws a smaller one under the bigger one. The sensors have balls on them these help them to smell. The largest ball is on the end of the sensors. It is usually 3 or 4 times as big as the other. Their claws are used for eating and killing their prey. They live as adults for 9 months from February to November. They have a main body and a smaller head that is in front of the main body. In between the body and the head is another part of the body, this is the thorax, They have this middle bit so they can move their head more freely. Their head has the antennae, claws and sensors on it. Their head also has 2 eyes that are not very good in light but very good in the dark, their eyes are black. At night you can find them crawling around fields, gardens and parks hunting their prey. They also like to hide in humid, damp and warm condition. The Violet Ground Beetle stands up on its front legs while hunting to smell the air for their prey, or to see if it is safe to come out from under a rock or piece of wood when they have been scared. Their shell is made out of Keratin which is the same for most beetles. These creatures like digging in soil. They hunt from dusk to about 1 hour before dawn.