Bug FAQPoecilus chalcites
Poecilus chalcites · Order: Coleoptera · Family: Carabidae
Males have a heart-shaped fore-tarsus while females have a thinner one, which lets you tell them apart. It is a carnivore that eats several crop pests, including corn rootworm, corn earworm, cutworms and armyworms.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Males have a heart-shaped fore-tarsus; females have a thinner fore-tarsus.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 38 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Kansas, Texas, Maryland, Ohio, Oklahoma, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Illinois.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in Canada; native in United States. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
How can I tell male and female Poecilus chalcites apart?
Look at the nearest fore-tarsus: males have a heart-shaped one, while females have a thinner shape.
Source: Wikipedia
What does Poecilus chalcites eat?
It feeds on several crop pests, including corn rootworm, corn earworm, cutworms and armyworms.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Carabidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poecilus_chalcites
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.