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Ground beetle??
Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 11:37 am
by luck
Found this in my bath room.
- SDC11441.jpg (10.57 KiB) Viewed 7581 times
Re: Ground beetle??
Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:39 pm
by DonSten
Hi Luck
I think what you've got is one of two species - either Pterostichus madidus or Pterostichus melanarius.
They are a similar size and both very common, but can be told apart by the shape of the pronotum (top surface of the thorax) - in madidus it is rounded, whereas melanarius is square at the hind corners and I think that is what it is, but I can't make out any detail. It helps to indicate size when posting anything like this, but I am guessing that the container is a coffee cup?
I get both of these in the house, and they rob the cat food - quite amusing watching a beetle dragging a piece of Whiskas out of the door.
Cheers
Don
Re: Ground beetle??
Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:54 pm
by luck
Thanks Don,
It's about 1cm in length. I was rather surprised to see a beetle of that size walking around the bathroom floor. So I put it in a cup to take a picture which works great for stopping it escaping but the macro lens on a £50 camera let me down.
Cheers
Luck