Xantholinus gallicus

I used Mike Hackston's keys to identify this beetle, found in a pitfall trap (pretty much covered in mud and barely alive). I nearly went wrong at the last couplet, perhaps slightly influenced by the description of linearis as common and the most frequently-recorded member of the genus - after all, I've not done a great deal with Staphs up to now so the odds were it was going to be the really common one! The status of gallicus made it seem much less likely, but after figuring out that it was this in any case I checked the county database and see that it's actually pretty common in Norfolk. At first the elytra didn't seem very shiny and there was a very slight hint of linearity in the punctures at the edges - but was this enough to qualify as, "the punctures not so scattered and somewhat organised into lines" (as for linearis)? I wasn't sure, so checked the genitalia, and the internal sac certainly has a pair of bent teeth separate from the smaller teeth at the end, and it seems that makes it gallicus. Looking again at the elytra, there is a bit of a shine and no microsculpture visible (also correct for gallicus), and I found an extremely high quality image of linearis which shows the elytral punctures to be more clearly organised into lines than on mine.

Xantholinus gallicus showing head (with close-ups of front from above and below), pronotum, elytra (with close-up showing of centre of one) and aedeagus (second photo just showing the inner sac, Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 2nd to 12th November 2022