Description: Small (6.5-8mm) dark ground beetle with blue metallic elytral reflections and reddish-yellow appendages which inhabits woods and scrub. Often common in spring.

NI account: Widespread and common throughout Ireland.

Ecology: A forest species usually recorded from hedgerow banks or woodland in spring (April-June).

Distribution: A Mediterranean-Atlantic species (91) reported from Holland and the British Isles south and west to Iberia and into the Mediterranean as far as Greece.

Similar Species: Leistus montanus: metallic colouration; hind angles of pronotum with setae (L. spinibarbis: legs dark)

Key Identification Features:

• Dilated, very flat mandibles (Fig. 1)
• Neck constricted with a lace (Fig. 1)
• Pronotum cordate
• Faint metallic blue colouration
• Head wrinkled, not punctate, laterally
• Legs pale

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

iNaturalist: Leistus fulvibarbis at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Leistus fulvibarbis | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Leistus

Thumbnails for genus Leistus