Description: A 6.5-9mm long pale brownish ground beetle, common in coastal sand dunes.

NI account: Locally abundant in sand dunes along the coast.

Ecology: Very xerophilous, and tied to a narrow zone of loose sand in the fore dunes on the east and south coasts of Ireland. However, on the more exposed north and west coasts it has a slightly wider range, wherever wind-blown sand occurs.

Distribution: Distributed along coasts from southern Fennoscandia to the Iberian Peninsula and across the Mediterranean; therefore Mediterranean-Atlantic (91).

Similar Species: Calathus melanocephalus: elytral intervals flat; pronotum rufous; head and elytra black; sometimes in dune grassland but rarely fore dunes C. cinctus: pronotum rufous; sometimes with mollis in fore dune habitats

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)
• Third elytral interval with three or more setiferous punctures
• Pronotum, head and elytra dark brown
• Elytral intervals slightly convex

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

iNaturalist: Calathus mollis at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

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

Thumbnails for genus Calathus