Description: A scarce 6-8mm long bronze Amara, typical of open gravelly or chalky soils. Mainly phytophagous. Local, mainly in the east.

NI account: Recorded by Johnson & Halbert (1902) from several localities in Dublin and one in Kerry. There is also an outlier for Ballyliffin in West Donegal. The last confirmed Irish record was for the North Bull in Dublin, 1932. Local and scarce in England and Wales.

Ecology: Mainly on coastal sand dunes in Ireland but also on dry calcareous soils inland in Britain.

Distribution: A Eurasian Boreo-arctic montane or Wide-Boreal species (35) found across northern and western Europe to the Caucasus, Mongolia and Kamchatka. A mountain species in the southern parts of its range.

Similar Species: Distinguished from all other Irish Amara by the combination of pale antennae and non-denticulate pronotal hind angles. Amara bifrons is similar but lacks pore punctures at the base of scutellar striae

Key Identification Features:

• Body stout and a characteristic 'oval' shape
• Head with two supra orbital punctures
• Elytra with pore-puncture at base of scutellar striae
• Terminal spur of pro-tibia simple
• Hind angles of pronotum simple
• Antennae entirely pale
• All appendages pale

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

iNaturalist: Amara praetermissa at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

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

Thumbnails for genus Amara