Description: 5.5-8mm long brown ground beetle living in short turf on sandy or chalky soils where it occurs among moss, under stones or leaf rosettes. Only a single Irish record.

NI account: Its inclusion on the Irish List formerly rested on the record of Halbert (1924) for Howth, near Dublin. There are specimens in the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin. A single male specimen was taken on 7 June 2013 from under a stone in a back garden bordering the coastal path at Great Bailey Howth in the same general area. It is probably localised to south-facing slopes of the Head of Howth but not rare.

Ecology: A thermophilic species at the northern limit of its range in the British Isles, and confined to warm, dry, open habitats in Ireland.

Distribution: A Suboceanic Southern-temperate species (82) found across western and southern Europe from the British Isles, into the Mediterranean and east to Asia Minor.

Key Identification Features:

• Body medium, non-metallic brown
• Anterior margin of pronotum slightly produced in the middle (Fig. 70)
• Pronotal hind angles rounded, with single, linear basal fovea
• Elytra with 3 setiferous punctures

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

iNaturalist: Platyderus depressus at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Platyderus depressus | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Platyderus

Thumbnails for genus Platyderus