#3307 · 🪲 beetles
Black Oil Beetle
🇳🇱 Gewone oliekever ·Meloe proscarabaeus
🪲 Beetles 📍 in the Netherlands
7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
Meloe proscarabaeus is a European oil beetle. It lives in meadows, field margins and other warm sites in all but the far north of the continent. It lacks hind wings and the elytra are correspondingly reduced in size.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 66 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist.
- 16,140 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named in 1758 (268 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Black Oil Beetle
- Nederlands
- Gewone oliekever
- scientific name
- Meloe proscarabaeus
- class
- Insecta
- order
- Coleoptera
- family
- Meloidae
- sightings in NL
- 66
- sightings in Europe
- 10,189
- sightings worldwide
- 16,140
- GBIF records in NL
- 1,914
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1758
relatives· Meloidae
#3328 📷 10flame-shouldered blister beetle
🇳🇱 Sachembijenoliekever
Sitaris muralis
👀 54 in NL
#3437 📷 7Violet Oil Beetle
🇳🇱 Blauwe oliekever
Meloe violaceus
👀 16 in NL
#3471 📷 8Mylabris variabilis
Mylabris variabilis
🌍 6.7k seen
#3476 📷 10Four-spotted Blisterbeetle
Mylabris quadripunctata
🌍 5.3k seen
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 82109, Wikidata Q256218, GBIF 4457483, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.