Calosoma scrutator (Fabricius, 1775)

Majka, Christopher G., Bousquet, Yves & Westby, Susan, 2007, The ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) of the Maritime Provinces of Canada: review of collecting, new records, and observations on composition, zoogeography, and historical origins, Zootaxa 1590, pp. 1-36 : 6

Calosoma scrutator (Fabricius, 1775)

NOVA SCOTIA: Shelburne Co.: Cape Sable Island: The Hawk, 19.ix.2002, G. Milroy, coastal meadow: under board, (1, NSMC).

Newly recorded in Nova Scotia and in the Maritime Provinces as a whole. The discovery of this specimen on Cape Sable Island, in the extreme southwest of Nova Scotia, is surprising given the absence of records elsewhere in the Maritimes. Although it is unlikely that the species is a permanent resident, it is possible that the mild climate of Cape Sable Island allows a population to persist. Alternatively, the individual may represent a wind-blown stray from New England where this adept flyer occurs. The location of the island (the outermost projection of land into the northern Gulf of Maine) annually attracts many migrant and wind-blown stray birds. Calosoma scrutator is found in a large variety of environments on shaded ground; nocturnal and predaceous on Lepidoptera caterpillars and other insects ( Larochelle & Larivière 2003).