Description: A moderately large (8.5-10.5mm) black ground beetle living under stones, in leaf litter etc in hedgerows and woodland. Common.

NI account: Widespread except possibly in the west and on peaty soils.

Ecology: Regarded as a forest species in Europe, like C. micropterus, but in Ireland the ranges of the two rarely overlap. C. micropterus is primarily recorded from ground above the 200m contour, thus mainly on Calluna heath or in planted conifer forests on deep peat. C. rotundicollis is restricted to low ground where it has been found in deciduous and mixed woodlands and along untrimmed hedgerows. Its apparent scarcity in Fermanagh, which is comparatively well wooded, is difficult to explain.

Distribution: A Mediterranean-Atlantic species (91), or possibly European Southern-temperate, found from south-east Fennoscandia through north-west Germany and the British Isles south, patchily, to the Iberian Peninsula, Italy and, as an outlier, in southern Greece.

Similar Species: Synuchus vivalis: terminal segment of palpi pear-shaped; elytra with two dorsal punctures

Key Identification Features:

• Body medium sized, slender, legs long
• Tarsal claws serrate (Fig. 72)
• Pronotum broad, rounded, with sides well rounded at hind angles (Fig. 68)
• Elytra with at least four dorsal punctures

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

iNaturalist: Calathus rotundicollis at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

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

Thumbnails for genus Calathus