In some forests close to Brussels, a very nice colour morph of Carabus auronitens can be found. Some authors consider it as the 'forma individua putzeysi'. Carabus auronitens f.i. putzeysi has much darker shields, which are almost black - sometimes with a bluish tinge. The amount of black on the shields varies from specimen to specimen.

The colour morph is rather rare and local, I would say only one out of ten to twenty individuals belong this specific colour morph. I had already looked several times in vain to find the f.i. putzeysi  in the Forest of Soignes. I must admit that most of the times I wasn’t there in the right season, so I never searched really thoroughly. The place is only about a 50 minutes drive from my house, so I relied on being able to come back till I'd find a nice specimen. Previous Sunday, I decided to give it a serious chance and my quest was rewarded after about one hour looking under logs and in other potential wintering sites. I found a total of about 25 Carabus auronitens specimens, of which one male and one female putzeysi.

Under here an image of the classical colour morph, with the reddish coppery head and pronotum, and greenish shields. I was lucky with the soft and beautiful winter light and I decided to take pictures without the use of a flash. I used a silvery reflector screen to lighten the beetle up from underneath and aside.

Under here a beautiful female who had still some of the classical shield colours with greenish and copper in the centre of its shields.

Finally under here a male, with almost black shields. Only in the centre there is a little red coming through the black, giving it a purplish tinge.

Carabus auronitens is a good indicator species of old growth forests and it is one of the few exclusively stenotopic Carabus species found in Belgium.

Finally, under here, a frontal view of the beautiful male. One must admit, that even in Belgium there are beetles which can compete with the exotic beauty of tropical species!