Description: A moderately large (9-12mm) black ground beetle (form balbi Bonelli has red legs). Lives under stones, among shingle etc, at the sides of upland streams and rivers. Also common among boulders and scree on high mountain tops. Widespread and locally common in mountains.

NI account: In Ireland, as in Britain, this species seems to be common only in the north and west. However, it is possibly under-recorded in southern counties.

Ecology: Primarily riparian on the banks of coldwater gravelly or rocky streams. Also recorded from the summit moraine of the Mourne Mountains, Down.

Distribution: A circumpolar Boreal-montane species (46) found throughout northern and western Europe in montane or submontane habitats, east across Siberia to northern North America.

Similar Species: (Nebria nivalis: as rufescens but femora pale at base and anterior marginal setae on pronotum with a minute ridge inside them (Fig. 8))

Key Identification Features:

• Pronotum transverse, cordate (Fig. 7)
• Four basal segments of antennae glabrous
• Femora dark
• Antennae and palpi usually dark
• In hill areas only

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

iNaturalist: Nebria rufescens at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Nebria rufescens | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Nebria

Thumbnails for genus Nebria