Description: A medium-sized (8-11mm) black or steely-blue phytophagous ground beetle occurring on open sandy areas. Rare in Ireland. Southern.

NI account: Only two sites are known: Portmarnock, Dublin and Sherkin Island, Cork (Speight et al., 1983).

Ecology: Probably confined to warm, dry, sandy habitats in the vicinity of the coast in the southern half of Ireland.

Distribution: A European Southern-temperate species (83) distributed from southern Fennoscandia to the Iberian Peninsula and north Africa, and east to Asia Minor and the Caucasus.

Similar Species: Harpalus rubripes: antennae and tibiae pale

Key Identification Features:

• Characteristically stocky, broad, legs short
• Head with one supra orbital puncture
• Hind angles of pronotum without setae
• Upper surface black with faint blue reflection
• Apex of 7th elytral interval with a row of punctures (Fig. 105)
• Antennae from 2nd segmentand legs dark

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

iNaturalist: Harpalus rufipalpis at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Harpalus rufipalpis | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Harpalus

Thumbnails for genus Harpalus