Ophonus puncticeps Stephens, 1828

This Western Palaearctic species has a rather disjuct distribution; it is locally common from Spain to the Balkans, Asia Minor and Syria to the south and extends north into the UK, Denmark and Southern Sweden although it is otherwise absent from Fennoscandia and much of north eastern Europe. The eastern limit of the distribution is the Caspian Sea and parts of north western Russia although there are records from eastern Siberia but these may refer to another species. It was first recorded in North America in 1954, no doubt from European imports, and since that time has become established and widespread in the north east. In the UK it is generally common across England below the Wash and very local and scarce further north to Cumbria, it is mostly coastal in Wales, occurs on all the islands and there are a very few records from Ireland. After O. rufibarbis (Fabricius, 1792) this is our most frequently recorded member of the genus. This is mostly a lowland species, occurring up to about 1000 m in Europe. Adults occur year-round although they are rarely encountered during the winter; they are active from April until October and peak in abundance during late summer. Typical habitats are open grassland with abundant herbaceous vegetation on light chalky or sandy soils but the species also displays a preference for recently disturbed sites such as roadsides, gardens and waste ground. Reproduction occurs mainly in the autumn although copulation has also been observed in the spring, and larvae develop through the winter and spring to produce fresh adults during April and May. Adults may overwinter and survive through a second summer but it is thought that reproduction occurs only during the year in which they eclose. Both adults and larvae are seed-feeders. Larvae excavate subterranean chambers which they provision with seeds on which they feed during the winter and in which they will pupate in the spring. They probably consume a range of seeds but the main food seems to be those of various umbels, and in particular those of wild carrot, Daucus carota L. Adults are mainly diurnal but they fly during the evening and at night and are often attracted to light traps in numbers. They will sometimes occur when sweeping umbels that are finished flowering and are developing seeds, and they often spend the day inside fruit clusters, at night they may be found on stems or on the ground and during the winter they have been found in grass tussocks and among matted vegetation and roots.