Bug FAQPot-bellied Snail-eating Beetle
Scaphinotus ventricosus · Order: Coleoptera · Family: Carabidae
Also called: Potbellied Snail-eating Beetle, Potbelly Snail-eating Beetle
Adult Pot-bellied Snail-eating Beetles have reduced wings, are gregarious, and are active at night. They are found in deciduous forests and poison-oak thickets of California and Oregon.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Adults are brachypterous, gregarious and nocturnal.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Adults have reduced wings, live in groups and are active during night hours.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
They inhabit deciduous forests and poison-oak thickets in California and Oregon.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
Their native range is in North America, specifically California and Oregon.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 4 of 51 states and DC. Most records: California, Pennsylvania, Arizona, West Virginia.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Same family (Carabidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphinotus_ventricosus
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-25 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-25.