Anotylus rugosus

Apparently a very common species and a relatively straightforward one to identify once you're familiar with it. I wasn't, so keyed this to subfamily using Hackston and then to species using Lott.

Anotylus rugosus showing pronotum (2 views) and head sculpturing, Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 9th August 2023

This one from the garden moth trap pre-dated the one above but was examined more recently.

Anotylus rugosus showing pronotum and head sculpturing, North Elmham (Norfolk, UK), 24th June 2023

This one was found in a pitfall trap (in propylene glycol, so no live photos).

Anotylus rugosus showing antennal scapes, head, pronotum and scutellum, Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 29th to 31st March 2024

I'd got the new Duff volume when I examined this one so although I was pretty sure this was rugosus I put Duff through its paces to see if it keyed easily enough. It did, although I found some of the characters separating Anotylus from Oxyelus difficult to see or convince myself of. Lott keys the two genera together as they are hard to separate and when I got to the Anotylus key in Duff I found that his Anotylus key does also allows for Oxytelus species as well as Anotylus. This one came to light.

Anotylus rugosus showing head, pronotum, scutellum, elyton, tergite sides (mid and basal) and hind tarsus, North Elmham (Norfolk, UK), 20th July 2024

This also came to light and by now I'm fairly confident recognising this species.

Anotylus rugosus showing head and pronotum, North Elmham (Norfolk, UK), 12th August 2024

I expected this to be something different as it had brown elytra and pronotum edges but on closer inspection it showed all the hallmarks of rugosus. Apparently this is within normal variation for the species.

second Anotylus rugosus showing scutellum, pronotum and head (2 angles), North Elmham (Norfolk, UK), 12th August 2024