{"id":16793,"date":"2026-01-07T08:31:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/?p=16793"},"modified":"2026-01-09T08:32:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:32:47","slug":"tri-colored-harp-ground-beetle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/tri-colored-harp-ground-beetle\/","title":{"rendered":"Tri-colored Harp Ground Beetle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Howdy, BugFans,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What an awesome beetle \u2013 thanks to BugFan Dave for sharing it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s not a whole lot of information out there about this species, and there\u2019s some misinformation (more about that in a sec), so let\u2019s sneak up on it, taxonomically.\u00a0Tri-colored harp ground beetles are in the Ground beetle family Carabidae, a huge (34,000 species), cosmopolitan (found \u2018round the world) family of often metallic or dark and shiny, mostly nocturnal (except for the wonderful, diurnal Tiger beetles and a few others), carnivorous beetles whose eggs, larvae, and adults tend to live under debris or in crevices on\/near the ground.\u00a0(The BugLady wouldn\u2019t want to diagram that sentence.) Most insects have a one-year life span and spend more than three-quarters of it in the larval, nymphal, or naiad stage, but Ground beetles may live two or three years as adults.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tri-colored harp ground beetles are in the subfamily Harpalinae, the Harp ground beetles, which, with about 6,400 species worldwide (1,230 in North America) is the largest subfamily of Ground beetles.\u00a0Lots of species, lots of variety, and lots of lifestyles, and some species are considered biological controls for nuisance insects.\u00a0Like other Ground beetles, Harp ground beetles defend themselves chemically with noxious or odorous secretions from pygidial glands located toward the rear of the abdomen. According to Wikipedia, the members of another Carabid subfamily, the Anthini, \u201ccan mechanically squirt their defensive secretions for considerable distances and are able to aim with a startling degree of accuracy; in Afrikaans, they are known as\u00a0oogpisters (“eye-pissers).<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the genus\u00a0Chlaenius<\/em>\u00a0are called \u201cVivid Metallic Ground Beetles.\u201d Chlaeri<\/em> comes from a Greek word for \u201ccloak\u201d and refers to the pubescence (fine hairs) on the dorsal side of the elytra (wing covers). The pubescence that may wear off as the beetle moves through its world.\u00a0Here are some close relatives:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n