Description: 5.2-6.1mm long black ground beetle with bluish reflections found on gravel near trickling water, principally in abandoned quarries. Also coastal on earth cliffs.

NI account: Very scattered and local with only seven modern Irish records, five of these from northern counties. Probably under-recorded because of its habitat preferences.

Ecology: This is evidently a pioneer species of barren gravelly clay, which in nature exploits flood and storm damaged areas on the seashore and on riverbanks. Most records refer to abandoned stone quarrying sites which provide suitably bare, gravelly substrata (Anderson, 1992). The type of rock does not appear to matter, colonies having recently been found on basalt (3 sites), Silurian slate (1 site) and Cretaceous chalk (1 site). Once vegetation develops, conditions become unsuitable, and no permanent localities are at present known in Northern Ireland. Nevertheless, there are abundant opportunities for the colonisation of ephemeral quarrying sites.

Distribution: With a European temperate distribution (73), recorded from southern Scandinavia and the British Isles to north Spain and north Italy and east to Rumania.

Similar Species: Bembidion monticola: pronotum strongly microsculptured, dull; pronotum narrow, barely wider than head B. deletum: two basal segments of antennae pale, femora dark

Key Identification Features:

• Small (5.2-6.1mm)
• Terminal segment of palpi much reduced (Fig. 31)
• Elytral striae disappearing apically and 2nd weaker than 1st
• Pronotum strongly cordate and shiny
• Three basal segments of antennae and legs pale
• On streambanks but also bare quarry floors

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

iNaturalist: Bembidion stephensii at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

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

Thumbnails for genus Bembidion