Description: Small (4.5-5.5mm), shiny-black fossorial ground beetle with bronze reflections. Typical of sheltered fine sands in estuaries and saltmarshes. Predatory on burrowing rove beetles of the genus Bledius.

NI account: Entirely coastal and widely distributed. It is associated with colonies of the rove beetle Bledius fergussoni Joy (Staphylinidae) at most sites, although B. gallicus (Grav.) and B. longulus Erichson are present in some places.

Ecology: Coastal and seemingly halophilic in Ireland. Certainly stenotopic for fine, moist sand, usually in small, stable areas adjacent to sand dunes. Not recorded from areas of lowered salinity or from freshwater margins.

Distribution: A European Boreo-temperate species (53), found along western coasts from southern Fennoscandia (rare) to northern Spain and very locally inland to Poland and western Russia.

Similar Species: Dyschirius politus: elytral striae fading towards apex, punctate

Key Identification Features:

• Brassy, elongate, cylindrical and with a 'waist'
• Fore legs adapted for digging
• Clypeus without a median tooth (Fig. 23)
• Pro-tibia only with tubercle at base of main spur (Fig. 24)
• Elytral striae strongly impressed to apex, nearly impunctate

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

iNaturalist: Dyschirius impunctipennis at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Dyschirius impunctipennis | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Dyschirius

Thumbnails for genus Dyschirius