LARS THOMAS: The snail hunter

Wednesday 15th September 2021

A new series from Lars Thomas in Copenhagen, who describes some of the more peculiar creatures that he comes across during his activities as a Naturalist and Cryptozoologist.

This is a carabid beetle called Cychrus caraboides, or more dramatically, the Snail Hunter. It is a fairly common large and nimble-footed animal, which seems rather over-the-top, as the beetle specialises in eating snails, and last time I looked, they were anything but nimble-footed. The long and narrow head enables the beetle to stick its entire head into a snail’s shell, and sort of eat it from the inside out. For good measure, it will gladly eat a slug as well.

Cychrus caraboides

Check outLars’ blog HERE

Check out Lars’ most recent book for CFZ Press HERE

Jonathan Downes
Cryptozoologist, naturalist, musician, singer, composer, poet, novelist and Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology since 1992. Jon was born in Portsmouth in 1959 and spent his infancy in Nigeria and his childhood in Hong Kong. His wife Corinna died of cancer in 2020, leaving him with two stepdaughters and a six year old granddaughter called Evelyn.