Description: 8-12mm long black ground beetle of dry, sandy ground with sparse vegetation. Rare in Ireland.

NI account: Scattered along coasts from Malin, Donegal to the Blackwater Estuary, Waterford. The record given by Speight et al. (1983) for the Mourne Mountains, Down was based on a misdetermination. The only modern record is for Portmarnock Strand in 2002 (RA). Overall Irish status uncertain.

Ecology: A xerophilous species and probably confined in Ireland to sandy coastal habitats.

Distribution: A Eurasian Wide-temperate species (65), widely distributed in Europe except in the extreme south, east to Asia Minor, the Caucasus and most of Siberia.

Similar Species: (Calathus ambiguus: greatest width of pronotum behind middle; elytra without metallic reflection) C. fuscipes: elytral with punctures on the third and fifth intervals

Key Identification Features:

• Body medium-sized, slender, legs long
• Tarsal claws serrate (Fig. 72)
• Third elytral interval with 2 setiferous punctures
• Pronotum with sharp hind angles (Fig. 68)
• Greatest width of pronotum before middle
• Elytra often with faint greenish or bluish reflection

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

iNaturalist: Calathus erratus at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Calathus erratus | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Calathus

Thumbnails for genus Calathus