Description: A small (3-4mm) brownish-black ground beetle with paler spots. Lives among lush vegetation at the margins of freshwater, usually in acid conditions. Very rare in Ireland.

NI account: Johnson & Halbert (1902) cite records for Lowry's Lough, Armagh, Ballyscanlan Lake, Waterford, and Cobh, Mid Cork. The Cobh record may refer to another, similar, but halobiont species, A. elegans, for which the habitat would appear more suitable. A. parvulus has not been refound on recent visits to the other two localities. A female, which could not with certainty be separated from A. elegans was taken by Good & Butler (1998) at Tacumshin Lake, Wexford. More work is needed to clarify the status of A. elegans in Ireland before it can be included with certainty on an Irish List.

Ecology: A hygrophilous species recorded from rich vegetation on the periphery of lakes in southern and western Ireland. There are few records overall, and though widespread, is generally scarce.

Distribution: A Eurosiberian Wide-temperate species (64) found across Europe except the extreme north, and east to the Caucasus, Turkestan and western Siberia.

Similar Species: (Acupalpus elegans: pronotum with completely rounded sides; two basal antennal segments pale; 4th segment of male pro tibia emarginate, not strongly bilobed - Fig. 93)

Key Identification Features:

• Small (3-4mm), fairly convex and short-legged
• Elytra iridescent
• Pronotum with rounded hind angles
• Elytra with a single setiferous puncture
• Pronotum brown to rufous, varying
• Elytra with distinct pale shoulder macula
• Pronotum with hind angles slightly more obvious than in elegans
• 4th segment of male pro-tibia strongly bilobed (Fig. 93)

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

iNaturalist: Acupalpus parvulus at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Acupalpus parvulus | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Acupalpus

Thumbnails for genus Acupalpus