Spotted ground beetle - a photo on Flickriver

I’m assuming this a ground beetle of some sort. It was raining outside and it managed to get into my house through a small crack on the wall somewhere and then rolled over and died, as if it was asking me to make an image of it. I wasn’t really that up for it though … it seemed like a quite dull plain black beetle, like the ones you see running through the grass all the time. However, I should still make a macro of it, you never know I might learn something.

Well! To the naked eye it looked like a plain black beetle, but just adding a spot of strobing to the mix and all these iridescent spots start to appear. The markings really were interesting, I can’t demonstrate it in a still picture, but as I rotated the beetle around under a high powered LED light, the spots changed colour from dark blue to bright purple depending on what angle I held it at.

I don’t actually have an ID for this species as of yet. So if you do know what it is please tell me. The best info I can give you is that it was found in my garden which is pretty typical, and it is flightless as far as I can tell. It didn’t appear to have any wings hidden under casing and it has no ocelli.

Edit : Most likely genus Amara. Thanks Iain Lawrie

A rarity for me, neither image has any noise reduction or sharpening applied. I just couldn't get anything to work will with those dark tones.

Thanks for viewing

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / Sheffield City / Woodhouse Mill (show map)

Taken on: June 3, 2011

Tags:

Spotted ground beetle

beetle

spotty

Panasonic Lumix G10

El-Nikkor 50mm f/2.8

Pentax ASAHI bellows

Nikon SB24

DIY 12/

softbox

irridescent

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Sets appears in: • All Photos • Flickr Marketplace more » • Insect Macro « less

Groups appears in: • Macro Viewers • British Insects & other Arthropods more » • Spectacular Insects • UK Bugs • Micro Four Thirds (Micro 4/3) • Places to Watch Wildlife • Superlative Macros (Admin Invite & Members Only) • Arthropod Portraits - Studio Focus Stacks « less

Camera: Panasonic DMC-G10, f/0, 1/160 sec, 0mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-G10
Aperture:	f/0
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Focal Length:	0mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	On, Fired
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Ver.1.0
Show full info

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