Description: Very small (2.3-3.2mm) black ground beetle with bluish reflection found on moist clayey soil near the sea and in estuaries. Local in strandline litter, among reedbeds or in sandy saltmarshes.

NI account: Very local, on the coast. Scarce in the north-east and probably commonest in southern counties.

Ecology: Generally found on sand or clayish sand in upper tidal areas of sheltered saltmarsh habitats.

Distribution: A Eurosiberian Southern-temperate species (84) distributed along the coasts of north and west Europe and sporadically inland to western Siberia.

Similar Species: Bembidion normannum: tibiae and first antennal segment paler than rest of body; other differences slight; also a seashore species

Key Identification Features:

• Very small (2.3-3.2mm)
• Terminal segment of palpi much reduced (Fig. 31)
• Uniformly dark, metallic reflections faint
• On the seashore only
• Pronotum cordate (Fig. 48)
• Frontal furrows single

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

iNaturalist: Bembidion minimum at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

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

Thumbnails for genus Bembidion