Gonodera luperus

This was swept from Broom under Oak at the edge of wet woodland. The ID was suspected but checked by keying using Duff.

Gonodera luperus, Wendling Beck Project (Norfolk, UK), 4th June 2025

This one was beaten from pine and was keyed using Duff. The brown form (var. ferruginea) is supposed to be less common than the black ones but a Google image search of the species brings up plenty of brown ones so I don't think it can be very unusual.

Gonodera luperus, Snake Wood (Norfolk, UK), 27th May 2023

I had previously recorded a black example, in the Brecks like the one above. Back then it would have been identified using the Hackston keys.

Gonodera luperus, Hills & Holes (Norfolk, UK), 21st May 2020

I keyed this using Duff, having a slight wobble at couplet 28 (p. 491). The metasternum is clearly at a very different level to the abdominal sternites. I'm not entirely sure if I understand precisely what Duff means by the hind coxal margins - what I thought it meant is at the level of the metasternum not the abdominal sternites. However that contradicts the other characters in this couplet (the eyes are very clearly incised at the antennal insertions and the apical maxillary palpomere much larger than the penultimate one). Hackston's key led straight to Gonodera luperus. I don't recall having this problem before, but perhaps I was just happy previously that the two characters I understood clearly led to Gonodera and didn't worry too much about the hind coxal margins.

Gonodera luperus, Wendling Beck Project (Norfolk, UK), 28th May 2026