Description: 7.5-10.5mm long brownish black, predatory ground beetle restricted to very wet woodlands and turloughs. Burren only.

NI account: Added to the Irish List by Speight (1976a) from Garryland Wood in south-east Galway. Also known from a small turlough at Mullaghmore, The Burren, Clare (Anderson, 1997). Johnson & Halbert (1902) reported an unverified record for Glenarm in Antrim, but the geographical area and habitat appear wrong for this species. Nevertheless discovered recently in alder fen at The Montiaghs peatland reserve in south Antrim so may originally have occurred also at Glenarm. Restricted to the south and east in Britain.

Ecology: Thermophilic in marshy deciduous forests and carr. In Ireland restricted to the Karstic limestone areas of Clare and Galway in the south-west where it is a member of the turlough fauna.

Distribution: A Eurosiberian temperate species (74) found over most of Europe east to western Siberia.

Similar Species: Patrobus: legs shorter; pronotum with sharp hind angles; mentum lacking median tooth

Key Identification Features:

• Medium, brown-black, pronotum entirely rounded
• Legs long and slender
• Mentum with median tooth (Fig. 103)
• Claws simple
• Legs dark rufous
• Neck constricted behind eyes
• Head with two rufous spots in front of eyes
• Elytra with 3 setiferous punctures

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

iNaturalist: Batenus livens at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Platynus livens | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Platynus

Thumbnails for genus Platynus