Header

Amara familiaris


I obtained two beetles from different sites, Horsey and St Faith's Common (now Broadland Country Park), on the same day and, with some difficulty as I recall, identified them both as Amara familiaris. I was very inexperienced with the genus at the time - indeed with beetles in general - but even so, reviewing the photos now I am surprised that I managed to conclude they were both the same species. One, a dark-legged individual, was clearly misidentified - perhaps aenea but the photos aren't clear enough to be sure. The other, shown below, does look good for familiaris I think, so I suspect it was identified correctly. This is the one that I have labelled as being from St Faith's Common, but whilst familiaris is apparently very common in the Horsey area it appears to be much scarcer inland away from the Brecks, with no records on the NBN Atlas from anywhere very close to St Faith's. Did I mix the two specimens up? Normally I'm pretty careful about this sort of thing, but I think I got in a bit of a muddle with these. So in the end I think I must withdraw both records, one as the ID is incorrect and the other as the location is in doubt.

Amara familiaris Amara familiaris Amara familiaris
Amara familiaris, location uncertain, East Norfolk (Norfolk, UK), 18th April 2018