Ground Beetles of Ireland
Carabus nemoralis
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 © Roy Anderson |
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Carabus nemoralis Mueller, 1764
Description: A large (22-26mm), greenish-bronze ground beetle with reddish or coppery pronotal edges. Lives under stones, loose bark and among litter in gardens and agricultural land. Also high ground to hill summits in many areas.
World Distribution: A European Wide-temperate species (63), widespread in west and central Europe south to northern Spain and east to Moscow. Introduced in North America.
Irish Status: Widespread and fairly common across the northern half of Ireland but probably under-recorded in the south.
Ecology: A very eurytopic species, clearly favoured by human activities and widespread in gardens, parks, pastureland and woods in lowland areas. More local but still widespread on hill peat to the summits of the highest mountains. Collected virtually everywhere where pitfall trapping has been undertaken in gardens and cultivated land, but rarely encountered by casual hand searches. Probably the commonest garden Carabus in Ireland where it replaces the widespread British garden species, C. violaceus.