Description: Small (4.5-5.5mm) black ground beetle with bluish reflections, typical of gravel beds along rivers.

NI account: Widely distributed in hill districts.

Ecology: A riparian species recorded from gravelly or shingly upland streambanks, and tending to be local even in suitable areas such as the Sperrin Mountains. Unlike the related and very similar B. tibiale, it has not been reported from shaded habitats, but it overlaps extensively with that species in open habitats (44% of sites also occupied by B. tibiale).

Distribution: A difficult species to classify using Preston and Hill's rules (1997). Possibly best described as Suboceanic Boreal-montane (42), distributed from Germany, Austria and the British Isles through France to the Iberian Peninsula.

Similar Species: Bembidion geniculatum: base of pronotum straight; apex of elytra pointed (Fig. 54) B. tibiale: larger, flatter, shinier; base of pronotum straight

Key Identification Features:

• Medium-small (4.5-5.5mm)
• Terminal segment of palpi much reduced (Fig. 31)
• Second elytral stria as strong as first; all striae fairly strong to apex
• Riparian on streambanks
• Convex, slender
• Base of pronotum oblique laterally (Fig. 53)
• Apex of elytra truncate (Fig. 54)

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

iNaturalist: Bembidion atrocaeruleum at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Bembidion atrocaeruleum | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Bembidion

Thumbnails for genus Bembidion