Submitted by Trevor Davis on Sun, 19/12/2021 - 16:35

I ought to know better by now than try to identify beetles!  Four people on iNaturalist tell me this is is the genus Poecilus (I thought it was Argonum, but then, I'm no expert) and there is only one species in that genus on our database, Poecilus cupreus, which is red-flagged for difficulty and it says it must be examined under the microscope.  I did not examine it under a microscope; indeed having no microscope I saw no reason to harm it in any way, but quite apart from that, the photo is not well focussed enough (my phone is tenacious when it comes to focussing on the background!) to see any keel on the basal segments of the antennae nor the area between the eyes.  But having been to some trouble to find out what it is, I thought I would put it here...

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Submitted by Sally Cunningham on Mon, 27/12/2021 - 14:57

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I can't name this one either, but have seen one very like it fairly frequently in dryish soil on allotments, edges of arable- especially cereal - fields and similar places