Description: 4.5-5mm long black ground beetle with greenish-blue reflections and pale appendages. Found at the margins of running water in shaded conditions. Local, mainly in the north.

NI account: Very locally distributed in upland areas, mainly in the northern counties and in Kerry. Its preference for deep, shady glens may limit its potential range.

Ecology: Confined for the most part, to bare or sparsely vegetated, fine sand on wooded, highland streambanks. The protection of undisturbed wooded streambanks from river engineering would appear to be essential to its survival.

Distribution: A European Boreal-montane species (43) which is coincidentally almost absent from the Boreal biome, but is justified in the present class as a mountain species in all but the northern parts of its range. Found locally in mountains across west and central Europe to the Caucasus, but apparently rare in Fennoscandia with a single verified population in southern Finland.

Similar Species: Bembidion stephensi: pronotum much broader than head, shiny; first three antennal segments pale

Key Identification Features:

• 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, dull and narrow, barely wider than head
• First antennal segment and legs pale
• Mainly shaded streambanks

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

iNaturalist: Bembidion monticola at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

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

Thumbnails for genus Bembidion