Description: A common 6-8mm brassy Amara occurring in moss and litter very widely, also in upland peat. Phytophagous.

NI account: Widespread and fairly common in northern counties but status elsewhere difficult to gauge at present.

Ecology: Eurytopic and recorded from agricultural land, lightly wooded areas and occasionally on drier Calluna heaths in the hills.

Distribution: A Eurasian Boreo-temperate species (55) found across Europe, south to the Caucasus, and east across Siberia to Kamchatka. Introduced to North America (Bousquet, 1992).

Similar Species: Difficult species to characterise - similar in appearance and size to the following. A. aenea: elytral intervals nearly flat A. convexior: lateral rows of deep punctures on elytra without a significant gap in the middle A. plebeja: basal pore puncture on scutellar striae; terminal spur of pro-tibiae trifid A. familiaris: legs entirely pale A. lunicollis: only one or two basal segments of antennae pale

Key Identification Features:

• Body stout and a characteristic 'oval' shape
• Head with two supra orbital punctures
• Elytra lacking pore-puncture at base of scutellar stria
• Terminal spur of pro-tibia simple
• Hind angles of pronotum simple
• Antennae with 3 (or 4) pale basal segments
• Femora dark
• Elytral striae deepened towards apex, intervals convex
• Lateral rows of elytral punctures with a gap in the middle (Fig. 87- view elytra from side)

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

iNaturalist: Amara communis at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Amara communis | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Amara

Thumbnails for genus Amara