Bradycellus csikii

This is a Nationally Scarce beetle which seems to be most commonly recorded in the Brecks, but there aren't very many Norfolk records even there.

This came to light in my garden and I didn't it looked quite like either of the Bradycellus that I'm familiar with so I half-expected it to prove to be something entirely different. However when I examined the specimen it soon became clear that it was Bradycellus. Unfortunately I'd allowed the specimen to go mouldy, but underneath the mould it was in good condition so it was just a case of scraping it off. That was sufficient to give me a pretty good idea of what it was, but in view of the species' scarcity I wanted a cleaner view of some of the detail so cleaned each part in potassium hydroxide solution.

The sutural stria on the left side was short and clear; on the right side it was less clear, hardly indented at all. It existed faintly through a small row of punctures, even shorter than the stria on the left side. However on this right side there was also an additional isolated puncture some distance beyond the end of the stria and slightly beyond the end of the left hand stria. I found comparing mine with Udo Schmidt's high resolution photos of csikii and harpalinus really helpful to make sure I was interpreting the length of the sutural striae correctly. The detail of the pronotum also matched csikii (and not caucasicus which I think is usually generally paler). The contrastingly pale suture is present on most other photos of csikii online, to a lesser or greater extent. It wasn't immediately obvious to me that the eyes were less bulging than on harpalinus (which has longer sutural striae), but in the end I think I could see that. The wings were full.

female Bradycellus harpalinus showing sutural striae (2 views), pronotum, head and elytron, North Elmham (Norfolk, UK), 13th August 2025