Athous bicolor

Size 8 to 10 mm. Quite an elongated species. The elytra are brown in colour with ridges and pits running down their length. The pronotum is slightly darker. The hairs are very similar in colour to the elytra. The legs and antennae are unicolourous with the rest of the insect and the antennae are very long, extending far beyond the posterior edge of the pronotum.

A Grassland species. It can be found resting on grass stems and flowers of Umbellifers in the afternoon until dusk and by beating branches of Oak, Willow and a range of shrub species.

Adult insects appear from June to July and August.

The larvae develops underground, feeding on the roots of a range of grass species.

Widespread and fairly frequent in Wales and England up to East Yorkshire. One or two isolated and historical records from central Scotland.

Infrequent or under recorded in Leicestershire and Rutland. There were approximately 11 VC55 records for this species up to March 2015.