Ground Beetles of Ireland
Carabus monilis
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 © Roy Anderson |
 W. W. Fowler |
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Carabus monilis Fabricius, 1792
Description: Large (22-26mm) granulate bronze or green ground beetle found in dry, open, usually arable, country. A southern species and very rare in Ireland.
World Distribution: A Suboceanic temperate species (72) distributed from southern Britain east to the Czech Republic and south to north-west Italy. Very local in Britain which is at the northern end of its range, and much declined during the present century (Luff, 1998). Not in Fennoscandia apart from a naturalised population in south-east Norway (Lindroth, 1985).
Irish Status: There are four Irish records of this species of which two are backed by vouchers, but all are old (Johnson & Halbert, 1902). Possibly extinct, but as it has always been rare, and may have been overlooked in the calcareous agricultural soils which it favours, this is difficult to determine at present.
Ecology: A species associated with cultivated land in calcareous areas and unlikely ever to have occurred other than as a vagrant in the wetter soils of north and west Ireland.