Vanishing III (Delta Green Ground Beetle)

Holly Downing

The jewel-toned Delta Green Ground Beetle is endemic to Solano County, California, and makes its home near vernal pools found in the Jepson Prairie Preserve and elsewhere. Their life cycles follow the pools' seasonal formation and dissipation. Its minute body can be a solid emerald green or patterned with chevron-like gray and yellow stripes, as seen in Holly Downing's "Vanishing III".

Encroachment of development, agriculture, and invasive species have placed the beetle in a perilous situation, and it was added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's 'critically endangered' designation on their Red List. It has also been federally listed as endangered since 1980.