Description: A large (16-20mm), granulate bronze or green ground beetle of drier montane dwarf shrub heaths. Also in Atlantic heaths down to sea level on western coasts.

NI account: Widespread but local in hill areas and commoner in the north. Not recorded from the south-west.

Ecology: Primarily a montane species, occurring on the drier parts of blanket peat or on thin ranker soils. Koch (1992) describes it as xerophilous/silvicolous in central Europe, but in the British Isles dwarf shrub (Calluna) heath is the preferred habitat. Occurs down to sea level in a few Atlantic heath sites in the west.

Distribution: A Eurasian Boreo-temperate species (55), widespread in Europe north to the Arctic Circle and east across Siberia to Sakhalin and Japan.

Similar Species: Carabus granulatus: elytral sculpture superficially similar but with three continuous ridges on each and intervals with regular rows of shorter ridges and tubercles (Fig. 16); pronotum sinuate in front of hind angles

Key Identification Features:

• Large, with sculptured elytra and metallic reflections
• Elytral sculpture regular, but with main ridges broken up into shorter ridges and intervals with irregular rows of small tubercles (Fig. 15)
• Pronotum nearly parallel-sided - greatest width near middle
• Upper surface with uniform greenish or brassy reflection

Distribution Map from NBN: Carabus arvensis at National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.

iNaturalist: Carabus arvensis at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Carabus arvensis | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Carabus

Thumbnails for genus Carabus