Description: 4.5-5.3mm long black ground beetle with blue metallic reflections, found on moist, clayey soil with trickling water, particular by small, wooded streams.

NI account: Very locally distributed, and mostly in the north. We have found very few records for southern counties. Apparently much more widespread in England and Wales (Luff, 1998).

Ecology: Mainly recorded from wooded, gravelly banks of small, highland streams or from trickling water on gravelly soil in the floors of quarries or along hill paths.

Distribution: A European Boreo-temperate species (53) recorded from west-central and southern Europe to north Africa, and east to the Caucasus.

Similar Species: Bembidion stephensi: palpi and legs clear reddish-yellow B. monticola: legs clear reddish-yellow; pronotum barely wider than head

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, much broader than head
• Elytra dark, metallic blue-green
• Penultimate segment of palpi and femora dark

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

iNaturalist: Bembidion deletum at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

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

Thumbnails for genus Bembidion