Amara plebeja

This was in a pitfall trap (in propylene glycol, so no live photos). It was my first member of the subgenus Zezea with its distinctively trifid tibial spur and as such it was reassuring to see how evident this was. I've often keyed past this when looking at other Amara and wondered how careful I needed to be to avoid mistaking the apical bristles either side of the spur for the outer arms of the spur. Having now seen what the trifid spur actually looks like I don't think there's too big a risk of overlooking it. One of the characters separating plebeja from strenua (unlikely in Norfolk I think) is the smoothness of the sides of the sternites (smooth in plebeja and punctate in strenua). They were smooth in the sense of being unpunctured, though with a slightly wrinkled texture.

Amara plebeja showing prosternum (from above and side), scutellary pore and prosternal process, Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 29th to 31st March 2024