Description: 3-4mm long dark brown ground beetle of sandy and peaty soils, usually in litter under heather. A northern peatland species but rare.

NI account: Local and rare on upland peat. Principally in northern counties but there is an old record for Killarney.

Ecology: Mainly recorded on upland Calluna heath on better-drained peat or gravel.

Distribution: A Eurosiberian Boreo-temperate species (54) distributed across Europe from Fennoscandia south to northern Iberia and east to the Caucasus and western Siberia.

Similar Species: Bradycellus harpalinus: slightly larger (3.8-4.2mm); pronotum darker, brown to black, with contrasting clear rufous margins

Key Identification Features:

• Small (3-3.9mm), convex and short-legged
• Upper surface glabrous
• Mentum with tooth
• Pronotum with entirely rounded hind angles (Fig. 91)
• Pronotum rufous to brown without contrasting pale margins

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

iNaturalist: Bradycellus caucasicus at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Bradycellus caucasicus | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Bradycellus

Thumbnails for genus Bradycellus