Description: 10-14mm long black ground beetle of dry open ground, including gardens and arable land. Generally common.

NI account: Widely distributed in dryish terrain.

Ecology: A eurytopic but moderately xerophilous species in Ireland. There is a spread of records for well-drained agricultural land, but it is most often recorded from dry coastal dunes and heaths.

Distribution: A European temperate species (73) distributed across most of Europe to north Africa, Asia Minor and the Caucasus.

Similar Species: Other Calathus spp.: elytra with setiferous punctures only on the third interval; basal foveae of the pronotum smooth or finely punctate; pronotum with well-marked hind angles

Key Identification Features:

• Body medium sized, slender, legs long
• Tarsal claws serrate (Fig. 72)
• Pronotum broad, little rounded, with sides almost parallel in basal half (Fig. 68), as melanocephalus
• Elytra with setiferous punctures on the third and fifth intervals
• Basal foveae of pronotum coarsely punctate

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

iNaturalist: Calathus fuscipes at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

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

Thumbnails for genus Calathus