Description: A large (18-22mm) broad, black ground beetle. Lives under stones, loose bark, leaf litter etc, in woodland, heaths and montane peatlands.

NI account: Widespread and common.

Ecology: Regarded as a eurytopic forest species in Europe. Very widespread in both wooded and cultivated land in Ireland, but also very common on hill land in the drier kinds of Calluna heath up to the summits of mountains.

Distribution: A European temperate species (73) and distributed in a broad swathe across west, central and eastern areas, but absent from the extreme south and from most of Fennoscandia.

Similar Species: Pterostichus melanarius/niger: seventh elytral interval behind shoulder normal; elytra without ninth striae in apical half

Key Identification Features:

• Large, body stout, legs short
• Seventh elytral interval behind shoulder convex or carinate
• Elytra with extra (ninth) striae in apical half
• Pronotum characteristic (Fig. 67)

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

iNaturalist: Abax parallelepipedus at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Abax parallelepipedus | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Abax

Thumbnails for genus Abax