Description: A small (3-4mm) bronze-black ground beetle of dry, sandy ground with sparse vegetation. Locally common on the south-east coast.

NI account: Entirely restricted to the southern coasts: Meath to Clare.

Ecology: Thermophilous on sandy soils near the coast where it may be common at the roots of vegetation and in litter in sparsely vegetated, dry areas.

Distribution: A Eurasian Southern-temperate species (85) found across Europe except the extreme north, east to the Caucasus and the River Amur in Siberia.

Similar Species: Syntomus truncatellus: smaller; elytra broadening apically; upper surface scarcely metallic and legs brown; elytra shiny

Key Identification Features:

• Very small (3.1-3.8mm),
• Elytra truncate and sinuate at apex (Fig. 96)
• Elytra almost parallel-sided
• Upper surface black with bronze reflection and legs black
• Elytra microreticulate and dull

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

iNaturalist: Syntomus foveatus at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Syntomus foveatus | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Syntomus

Thumbnails for genus Syntomus