Crucifix Ground Beetle Panagaeus cruxmajor

The Crucifix Ground Beetle is a rare European Ground Beetle and known from limited sites in the UK - this one near the Thames Estuary. It is 7-9mm long and has four distinctive bright red patches on its bristly black wing cases, leaving a black crucifix-like pattern in the centre.

A mainly nocturnal and carnivorous species (thought to eat aquatic snails), it looks similar to a somewhat more common ground beetle: Panagaeus bipustulatus, but these (2-3 of them) were identified as Crucifix by a leading expert running the beetle survey on the estuary.