Description: Small (4-5mm), bronze-black burrowing ground beetle, predatory on rove beetles of the genus Bledius. Prefers sandy places on the coast, sometimes with other Dyschirius .

NI account: Widely distributed but very local in similar places to D. impunctipennis. The absence of records for the south coast is curious.

Ecology: Found in more silty or clayey habitats than either of the two preceding species. There is one inland record for fine sand mixed with soil, under alder on the shores of Lough Neagh at Rea's Wood National Nature Reserve, Antrim. Otherwise it has been recorded exclusively from coastal habitats.

Distribution: A Eurasian Boreo-temperate species (55) found across central and northern Europe to Siberia.

Similar Species: Dyschirius impunctipennis: elytral striae impunctate, deeply impressed to apex (D. nitidus: elytral striae punctate but well impressed to apex)

Key Identification Features:

• Brassy, elongate, cylindrical and with a 'waist'
• Fore legs adapted for digging
• Clypeus without a median tooth (Fig. 23)
• Pro-tibia with only a tubercle at base of main spur (Fig. 24)
• Elytral striae punctate but fading towards elytral apex, intervals flat

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

iNaturalist: Dyschirius politus at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

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

Thumbnails for genus Dyschirius