Soldier Beetle

• Despite its Spanish name cantárida roja, it has nothing to do with the poisonous cantharidin of the blister beetles: it is a harmless predator and a useful one in crops and gardens.
• Its elytra are soft and flexible rather than rigid as in most beetles, which gives it the look of an almost larval winged insect.
• The larvae hunt in the soil even under snow, and are sometimes seen walking on top of it in winter.
• It is called the soldier beetle in English because its red-and-black colouring recalled the military uniforms of the 18th century.
• Its elytra are soft and flexible, not rigid like those of most beetles — hence the name of the family, the cantharids or soft-winged beetles.
• It is a predator of aphids and other small insects, and it is constantly seen lying in wait on umbellifers.
• Its larva is just as predatory; it lives in the soil and sometimes appears walking on the snow in winter, which has earned it the popular name of snow worm in some countries.
• Despite the name, it has no connection with the pharmacological Spanish fly: that one is a meloid and produces cantharidin, and this one does not.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat & environment

Meadows, verges and woodland edges of Europe

Sources consulted: Buglife; Natural History Museum de Londres; Fauna Europaea

Best time: May to July, on flowering umbellifers