# Sycophant (*Calosoma sycophanta*)

Canonical page: https://creaturedata.com/animals/sycophant  
Data as of: 2026-11-14

The sycophant (Calosoma sycophanta) is a species in the family Carabidae, order Coleoptera. Recorded adults reach 3.5 cm in length. Source checklists list it for 36 countries, including Albania, Algeria and Armenia.

## Quick facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Weight | Not recorded |
| Length | 2.1 cm – 3.5 cm |
| Lifespan | Not recorded |
| Diet | Invertivore |
| Main food | Not recorded |
| Habitat | forest, freshwater, wetland |
| Young per litter or clutch | Not recorded |
| Conservation status | Not recorded |
| Countries on record | 36 countries |

## Recorded prey and predators

Recorded prey: Lymantria dispar (*Lymantria dispar*). Each pair is recorded by at least two datasets compiled by Global Biotic Interactions (https://www.globalbioticinteractions.org/, CC0 1.0).

## Introduced range

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists it as introduced in 1 country. Introduced: United States. Source: https://griis.org/ (CC BY 4.0).

## Classification

- kingdom: Animalia
- phylum: Arthropoda
- class: Insecta
- order: Coleoptera
- family: Carabidae
- genus: Calosoma
- species: *Calosoma sycophanta* (Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms: *Callipara rapax*, *Callipara sycophanta*, *Calosoma anthracinum*, *Calosoma azureum*, *Calosoma corvinum*, *Calosoma cupreum*, *Calosoma habelmanni*, *Calosoma lapougei*, *Calosoma marginatum*, *Calosoma nigroaeneum*, *Calosoma nigrocyaneum*, *Calosoma nigrosuturale*, *Calosoma prasinum*, *Calosoma purpureipenne*, *Calosoma purpureoaureum*, *Calosoma rapax*, *Calosoma severum*, *Calosoma smaragdynum*, *Calosoma solinfectum*, *Carabus sycophanta*

## Countries on record

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Lithuania, Morocco, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

## Common questions

### How big is the sycophant?

An adult sycophant measures 2.1 cm – 3.5 cm long, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

### Where does the sycophant live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the sycophant for 36 countries, including Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Austria and Azerbaijan. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

### Is the sycophant an invasive species?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the sycophant as introduced in 1 country: United States, but does not flag it as invasive in any of them.

### What kind of animal is the sycophant?

The sycophant (Calosoma sycophanta) belongs to the family Carabidae in the order Coleoptera.

### Which animals does the sycophant eat?

Animals recorded as prey of the sycophant include lymantria dispar. The records are compiled by Global Biotic Interactions from published studies; each pair is reported by at least two datasets.

## Sources

- [Catalogue of Life eXtended Release](https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/316691), CC BY 4.0, 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
- [Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI): interpreted data products](https://www.globalbioticinteractions.org/), CC0 1.0, 0.11. Poelen, J.H., Simons, J.D. & Mungall, C.J. (2014) Global Biotic Interactions: an open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics 24: 148–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2014.08.005. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22691479, with each record's original reference.
- [Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS)](https://griis.org/), CC BY 4.0, 2026-11-13. Pagad, S., Genovesi, P., Carnevali, L., Schigel, D. & McGeoch, M.A. (2018) Introducing the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species. Scientific Data 5: 170202. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.202. Country checklists published through GBIF by the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group.
- [TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844), CC BY 4.0, 2.0. Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844

Cite as: Sycophant (Calosoma sycophanta). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/sycophant