Bledius opacus

Back in 2014 I was hardly looking at beetles and certainly wasn't making any serious attempt to identify difficult species like rove beetles. Nevertheless I had a stab at this one, probably by comparing it to images on NatureSpot or something equally unscientific. The best match I could find was Oxytelus laqueatus and I labelled it as such. Looking back at it now I don't think that's right. Without a specimen I can't key it out, but I reckon it looks better for a Bledius species. Of all the ones I've checked the only one that looks spot on is Bledius opacus, and that happens to be our commonest Bledius. I'm not sure that's good enough to submit it as a definite record though, so for now I shall label it as 'probable'.

probable Bledius opacus, Bawdeswell (Norfolk, UK), 18th July 2014