I have seen these before wandering around at night but I fished this out of the drain this morning. It had fell through the grate and was trying to stay afloat.
when you feel down take a look outside...nature will uplift you
It could be a Lesser Stag Beetle,
looks quite like one,
I think its one of the ground beetles, poss pterostichus madidus.
The stag don't seem to have the antenni according to the book.
If it is its a common beetle.
Wait for others
Ray
a good laugh is better than a tonic
having googled both the lesser stag is chunkier and black my beetle is more like one of the ground beetles. Having looked at my pic again I realised that the violet tinge to it isn't showing very well.
dug out a couple of other pics i took so you can see the colour i mentioned although in the pic it doesn't look as violet!!!! :/ more like a browny red!!
looks more like the violet ground beetle now
ray
I think you've cracked it Ray
www.uksafari.com/violetgroundbeetles.htm
I would say looking at the link that it is probably that. I started seeing them in March at night as per description on the site. Thanks all :)