Description: 8-9mm long greenish or bluish black Amara. Phytophagous, living on dry ground, usually on sand or chalk close to human habitation. A recent coloniser and so far known only in the south-west.

NI account: The only Irish site to date is Killarney where Bullock first took it in 1938 (Speight 1976c).

Ecology: Little is known of its ecology in Ireland but it is likely to be synanthropic in ruderal situations.

Distribution: A Eurosiberian temperate species (74) and distributed over most of Europe except the north into west-central Siberia.

Similar Species: Amara ovata: pronotum sinuate inside basal angles, A. eyrinota: elytral intervals flat towards apex; size >10mm, A. similata: pronotum sinuate inside basal angles and with sides nearly parallel-sided in basal half (Fig. 81)

Key Identification Features:

• Body stout and a characteristic 'oval' shape
• Head with two supra orbital punctures
• Elytra with pore-puncture at base of scutellar stria
• Terminal spur of pro-tibia simple
• Antennae with 3 (or 4) pale basal segments
• Size <10mm, broad, convex, tibiae dark
• Elytral striae deepened towards apex, intervals convex
• Pronotum not sinuate inside hind angles (Fig. 81)

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

iNaturalist: Amara montivaga at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

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

Thumbnails for genus Amara