Carabidae Amara familiaris?

[JRsbugs]

Hi,

On 6th April. I know there's a lot of Amara sp., but Amara familiaris seems to tick all the boxes as far as I can see. Is it possible to say for sure?

Janet

[Paul mabbott]

The main thing against A. familiaris is that the legs aren't entirely pale, which I would expect. Other features that I would like to see are either not photographed or are obscure (I think that I see a scutellar stia and no scutellar pore but I may be wrong). The pronotal corner is okay! So, sorry - perhaps someone else will be braver?
How long was it?

[JRsbugs]

It was no more than 6mm Paul, it's in the title under the pic but I should have put it in the post.

I was actully looking for one which had dark knees, I found one on a Polish site which shows a little darkness there. Second row far right.

Amara - Coleoptera@PL

I also found the pronotum sharp corners were said to help separate it from other species, the beetle on naturespot has dark knees and darker tibia but I don't know how it was identified.

NatureSpot

[Klaas Reißmann]

Hi Janet,

genus Amara is not easy for ID, even taken of a beetle and not a photo. Amara familiaris and Amara lucida are the only two species of subgenus Amara s.str. having yellow legs. All the others of this subgenus do have some black colour in their legs. There are some more in other subgenuses, but this one belongs to subgenus Amara s.str.

Amara lucida is very similar to it and it needs a few to see the difference, but it can be seen. In this case your ID is right.

Regards
Klaas

Edit: I forgot: the better pages for Carabidae are those:

http://www.eurocarabidae.de/?v=photo...ice&s=50&owp=1

It takes a longer time to load, because of the many thumbnails. But you can see quite a lot of Carabidae of Europe and you can load very big pictures.

[JRsbugs]

Hi Klaas!

Thank you! Fantastic site you have linked to, I have saved it.

[Klaas Reißmann]

Hi Janet,

I forgot, too, that in most cases you need the specimen for an ID of Amara. so if you are interrested in an exact ID, save the specimen.

Regards
Klaas

[JRsbugs]

Originally Posted by Klaas Reißmann

Hi Janet,

I forgot, too, that in most cases you need the specimen for an ID of Amara. so if you are interrested in an exact ID, save the specimen.

Regards
Klaas

I think I got another today, but it has dark legs. I wouldn't have the heart to collect it, not even to examine closely. It's not that important to me to know for sure, a bonus if I can find out.

[Klaas Reißmann]

Hi Janet,

there is no need to collect them. I just tried to explain how difficult genus Amara and its ID on photos is.

Regards
Klaas

[poschiavanus]

I've been sweeping local patches of Common Mouse Ear and have got several specimens of pale-legged Amara. I'll try and run these down through a key, but doubt if I'll get too far.

I was wondering if anyone could provide some more information about their ecology (Faunistik for Klaus).

Cheers,

Posch

[Klaas Reißmann]

Good evening Posch,

one can't tell general, because all the Amara-species more or less do have their own biotic and abiotic needs. Amara infima for example is a species of heathlands and needs the heath itself. I don't know why, but you will not find any beyond heath. And their special needs are open sanded areas with only solitary haethbushes. There you can find them, but not in the thick grown areas with only heath, no grass, no sand etc.

Other Amara have different needs to this. And I'm far away from knowing the needs of every Amara-species and even if I wouldn't be far away from this knowledge I wouldn't spend the number of hours to explain.

If you figured out what species you do have I like to try to help. But not for all in general. If you do have problems with the ID you can send them over to me. I can do this and than tell you the needs.

Regards
Klaas