Description: A 7-8mm long brassy Amara of dry gravelly ground, often in gravel pits and field margins. Very rare in Ireland.

NI account: Confirmed as an Irish species from a specimen collected at Downhill, Londonderry (Nash et al., 1997). May have been a vagrant in this geographical area. Bullock (1932a) records a specimen from near Killarney, Kerry which was overlooked by Speight et al. (1983) and Anderson et al. (1997). The Bullock record may have provided the justification for Joy (1932) and Lindroth (1974) to include A. convexior as an Irish species. Taken recently (July 2000) in an arable field at Glinny near Riverstick, mid Cork.

Ecology: Very closely related to Amara communis but more xerophilic and confined to well-drained sandy or gravelly soil.

Distribution: A Eurosiberian Wide-temperate species (64) distributed from southern and western Europe to Asia Minor and east into western Siberia.

Similar Species: Difficult species to characterise - similar in appearance and size to the following. A. aenea: elytral intervals nearly flat A. communis: lateral rows of deep punctures on elytra with 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 lacking a clear gap in the middle (Fig. 87- view elytra from side)

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

iNaturalist: Amara convexior at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

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

Thumbnails for genus Amara