Description: A small (2.5-3.4mm) black ground beetle with sharp reddish-yellow stripe on the elytral suture. Lives among heather on sand or peat. Widely distributed and common.

NI account: Widely distributed on raised bog and heather moors.

Ecology: Stenotopic for dryish Calluna heath from sea level to moderate altitude, where it may be abundant in moss under mature Calluna. It has not been widely recorded on acid, ombrogenous bog, particularly in the west.

Distribution: A European Wide-temperate (63), recorded from southern Fennoscandia south to the Mediterranean and north Africa, and east to western Russia.

Similar Species: Characteristic by reason of its small size, colour and association with heather

Key Identification Features:

• Very small (2.5-3.4mm), convex and short-legged
• Upper surface glabrous
• Mentum with tooth
• Pronotum with rounded but well-defined hind angles (Fig. 91)
• Elytra dark with contrasting rufous suture

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

iNaturalist: Bradycellus ruficollis at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

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

Thumbnails for genus Bradycellus