Tasgius morsitans

This was found on an Oak tree trunk by torchlight. At the time I was using Hackston's keys and got it as far as either Ocytus or Tasgius. Mike didn't have a key to species up at the time and I didn't have any other resources that helped, however after some intensive Googling I reached the conclusion, incorrectly I now realise, that the red legs indicated that it was Ocytus brunnipes, and so identified it as such. Now in possession of Lott & Anderson I realise that red legs are shared with Tasgius pedator (which would be very unlikely) and Tasgius morsitans. I now realise that my original identification is not safe, at least not on the basis it was identified at the time.

Sadly I didn't keep the specimen so at first I suspected that I would have to let this one go unidentified. But zooming in on my sharpest photo I think I can see enough of the pronotoum punctures to determine it. It looks densely and uniformly punctured which I think points to Tasgius morsitans rather than the other two species. I found some really good quality images of both Tasgius morsitans and Ocyptus brunnipes online and comparing with these I am reasonably confident that morsitans is correct (and my original ID was incorrect).

Tasgius morsitans showing close-up of pronotum, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows (Norfolk, UK), 17th October 2018