Description: A 4.2-5mm long black ground beetle with four yellow-brown elytral spots. Found on gravel at the edges of rivers and lakes, but more usually on earth cliffs along the coastline. Very local.

NI account: Probably widespread, but very local and almost entirely coastal in Ireland.

Ecology: At its Down sites, it occupies barren stony or clayey banks on the upper shore on sheltered sea coasts. In Scandinavia (Lindroth, 1985), it is mainly recorded as riparian on gravelly riverbanks, and in Britain from sand and gravel by inland waterways (Luff, 1998).

Distribution: A mainly coastal, Eurosiberian Wide-Boreal species (34) distributed across north and east Europe to western Siberia.

Similar Species: Bembidion decorum: as saxatile but elytra uniformly dark, metallic

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
• Elytra four-spotted
• Small group of sharp punctures inside the eyes
• On streambanks but in Ireland mainly on gravelly/ clayish seashores

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

iNaturalist: Bembidion saxatile at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

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

Thumbnails for genus Bembidion