Description: 5-7mm long black ground beetle. Predatory. Very common in almost every habitat, usually living among plant litter but also under stones. Common in gardens and on arable land.

NI account: Widespread and abundant.

Ecology: Eurytopic, but much more a species of cultivation than P. diligens, although they frequently occur together in marshes. Best distinguished by the widely spaced, but strong puncturation of the prosternum.

Distribution: A Eurasian Wide-temperate species (65) distributed across the whole of Europe except the extreme south, and east into Siberia as far as the River Amur.

Similar Species: Pterostichus diligens: pronotum with a shorter sinuation behind hind angle (Fig. 65), dull; prosternum impunctate

Key Identification Features:

• Medium/small species,
• Hind angles of pronotum sharp (Fig. 65); pronotum cordate
• Pronotum with a single basal fovea
• Pronotum with a longer sinuation in front of hind angles (Fig. 65), shiny
• Prosternum coarsely punctate

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

iNaturalist: Pterostichus strenuus at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Pterostichus strenuus | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Pterostichus

Thumbnails for genus Pterostichus