Description: A small (4-5mm) shiny, four spotted ground beetle found on open mud of low coastal cliffs, also on river banks. Southern.

NI account: Johnson & Halbert (1902) cite a single record for near Belfast, Antrim, which is likely to refer to Lough Neagh. There are no later records for northern counties but it is recorded from near Portumna, Galway by Furlong. Modern records are by Speight et al., (1983) for a coastal locality in Wexford; by Glenda Orledge, from a stony shore on Lough Graney, Clare; and by R.C. Welch from rush litter by the Shannon at Portumna Forest Park. Predominantly south-eastern in Britain (Luff, 1998).

Ecology: Reported from open clay or sand near water, including the sea coast, in Scandinavia (Lindroth, 1985).

Distribution: A European Southern-temperate species (83) distributed across much of Europe except the north, to the Mediterranean area.

Similar Species: (B. quadrimaculatum: smaller (2.8-3.4mm); less shiny but four-spotted; elytral striae well developed; base of pronotum with a deep lateral incision)

Key Identification Features:

• Medium-small (4-4.9mm)
• Terminal segment of palpi much reduced (Fig. 31)
• Brilliantly shiny with four- spotted elytra
• Elytral striae disappearing behind middle
• Frontal furrows single
• Base of pronotum simple, angulate

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

iNaturalist: Bembidion illigeri at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

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

Thumbnails for genus Bembidion