Notes on carabid beetles in South Canterbury

Abstract

Over the winter of 2011, I found several species of small carabid beetle on Timaru's Caroline Bay that do not usually occur there, and were most likely washed up among wrack during autumn storms. These included several Bembidion species, a species of Dichrochile, and the streamside dweller Actenonyx bembidioides. I also found a single specimen of a small red-brown trechine. Using Ian Townsend's 2010 Trechini revision seemed to indicate that it could be Oarotrechus gracilentus, known from the type series found in shingle at Oaro in 1970 and not seen since, and a single specimen found in Southland. Its presence on the fine sandy beach at Caroline Bay seemed at odds with the shingle beach of its type locality.