Description: A small (5-6.5mm) reddish brown beetle with very narrow pronotum. Locally common in damp deciduous woods and densely vegetated marshes among reed and leaf litter and moss.

NI account: Patchily distributed but found throughout Ireland in suitable habitats. Mainly south-eastern in Britain (Luff, 1998).

Ecology: Very similar in ecology to Agonum assimile and like it recorded from wet woodland and carr along river valleys and lakeshores.

Distribution: A circumpolar Wide-temperate species (66) found throughout Europe except the extreme north and the extreme south, east across Siberia and into northern N. America.

Similar Species: Platynus albipes: larger; pronotum wider than head; tarsi with median furrow; elytra with two setiferous punctures.

Key Identification Features:

• Small/medium, brown, pronotum cordate and narrower than head (Fig. 74)
• Legs long and slender
• Mentum with median tooth (Fig. 103)
• Claws simple
• Legs pale
• Tarsi without median furrow
• Elytra with 3 setiferous punctures

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

iNaturalist: Oxypselaphus obscurus at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Oxypselaphus obscurus | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Oxypselaphus

Thumbnails for genus Oxypselaphus