ground beetle

noun

: any of a large cosmopolitan family (Carabidae) of soil-inhabiting usually carnivorous often shiny black or metallic beetles commonly having fused elytra

Examples of ground beetle in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Dislodged aphids rarely find their way back up and are often devoured by spiders and ground beetles. Rita Perwich, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Apr. 2025 Common insect predators in the home garden include lacewings, syrphid (flower or hover) flies, minute pirate bugs, ground beetles, and ladybeetles. Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 4 Apr. 2025 According to The Guardian, entomologist Terry Erwin named a species of ground beetle found in Costa Rica in 2002 after Titanic actress Kate Winslet, calling the insect Agra katewinsletae. Kelli Bender, People.com, 1 Dec. 2024 Photo: Ellie Atkins A 21-year-old Potter’s drawings of a ground beetle. Lisa Wong MacAbasco, Vogue, 5 Mar. 2024 While their slimy coatings deter some would-be-predators, raccoons, opossums, snakes, moles, toads, shrews, turtles, ground beetles, and birds, such as ducks, starlings, and thrushes, devour them with gusto. Paul Richards, Field & Stream, 29 Feb. 2024 The show includes an 1887 drawing of the magnified parts of a ground beetle, a reminder of the rich natural detail that would mark her stories. J.s. Marcus, WSJ, 21 Jan. 2022 Because ground beetles are nocturnal and more active during night hours, Will typically started his sampling days just before sunset and ended them between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. In September of that year, Maddison and Sproul finished collecting and analyzing the beetle’s DNA. Praveena Somasundaram, Washington Post, 31 Mar. 2023 Potter’s scientific drawings of a ground beetle, ca. 1887. J.s. Marcus, WSJ, 21 Jan. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1848, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of ground beetle was in 1848

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Cite this Entry

“Ground beetle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ground%20beetle. Accessed 9 Apr. 2025.

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