Description: 5-6mm long black ground beetle with metallic green or blue reflections and light-coloured legs. Confined to gravelly riverbanks.

NI account: Locally common in hill districts.

Ecology: N. Irish records relate to open gravelly or stony banks of small, clearwater highland streams, usually at no great altitude, where it is may occur in company with B. atrocoeruleum and B. tibiale.

Distribution: A European Boreo-temperate species (53) distributed from the British Isles through west-central and south Europe to the Mediterranean.

Similar Species: Bembidion saxatile: as decorum but elytra four-spotted

Key Identification Features:

• Medium-small (4.5-5.5mm)
• Terminal segment of palpi much reduced (Fig. 31)
• Elytral striae disappearing apically and 2nd weaker than 1st
• Pronotum strongly cordate
• Elytra dark, metallic
• Head with small group of sharp punctures inside the eyes

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

iNaturalist: Bembidion decorum at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

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

Thumbnails for genus Bembidion