Haeterius ferrugineus
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - beetle (Coleoptera) > Clown or False-clown beetle |
| Red List Status: | Vulnerable (Not Relevant) [VU(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Haeterius ferrugineus |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Olivier, 1789) |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Lane, 2017 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Only known from three widely separated sites in England since 1990 |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Potentially under-recorded and not as restricted to coastal grassland as previously thought and/or increasing inland, for example A. strenua has been recorded in several new locations well inland in West and East Sussex in the last 5 years, most in floodplain grassland / flood refuse. A new inland population was also discovered in Belgium in 2022 suggesting that this species may indeed be naturally increasing through a wider part of its range. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Haeterius ferrugineus would benefit from increased structural diversity and habitat mosaics that encourage a high density of host ant nests; in particular those of Formica fusca and F. sanguinea |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 5. Remedial action identified |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Relict or natural rarity |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Coleopterists are fairly rare and do not frequently investigate ant nests very often so it might be more widespread, however it's known distribution has always been very local since it's discovery in 1848. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Scrub control at its known sites to maintain/increase opportunities for nest founding by its preferred host ant species (Formica fusca, F. sanguinea)
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: Chobham Common NNR, Stokeford Heath SSSI
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Targeted survey to establish its distribution at its known sites and nearby areas that are occupied by its host ant species
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: Chobham Common NNR, Stokeford Heath SSSI
Comments: To run concurrently with Action 1
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Prepare and disseminate information on ant mutualist beetles to hymenopterists via BWARS to encourage recording
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Education/awareness raising
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites:
Comments:
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.