Known as the Mellet's Downy-back in English, the Ophonus melletii is so new the species has yet to be named in Estonian.

Roosileht collected the specimen from the side of a gravel road running along a field in Koikküla, Valga County, last June.

Despite the cold that night, he found a surprising number of insects active at the time, challenging the common perception that bugs are usually only active in warmer conditions.

Using a microscope, he later confirmed the species of ground beetle — one that had not been recorded in Estonia before.

"Ground beetles are a well-studied group, even in Estonia," Roosileht said. "It makes it increasingly rare, and all the more exciting, to find a species that hasn't been discovered here before."

Measuring about 8–9 millimeters long, the Mellet's Downy-back is brown and unassuming. Unlike many of its predatory fellow family members, the Ophonus melletii primarily feeds on seeds on the ground. Males and females can be distinguished by their front leg segments and overall body shape.

The species is native to open grasslands in Western and Southern Europe, preferring chalky and sandy soils. It has been found in northwestern Poland, Southern Sweden, Öland and Gotland, Denmark and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast, but until now had never been identified anywhere in Finland or the Baltics.

Within the same family, six hard-to-identify species of ground beetle have now been recorded in Estonia, all requiring genital slide mounts for precise identification under a microscope.

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