Hister bissexstriatus
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - beetle (Coleoptera) > Clown or False-clown beetle |
| Red List Status: | Near Threatened (Not Relevant) [NT(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: | Hister bissexstriatus |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | Fabricius, 1801 |
| 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: | Still quite widespread, but very local. Declining |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Largely confined to England, with very few sites known from Scotland. A habitat specialist found on heathland which has a widespread distribution but is very local and scarce, with a stronghold in the North York Moors area. The data indicate a strong recent decline for this species, but this may be an artefact of uneven recording effort. It is known from fewer than 15 hectads during the modern period, but is designated Nationally Scarce in the expectation that it is likely to occur more widely. At the current time it is not a priority for recovery actions. |
| 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: | Yes, if this involved grazing animals in the absence of endectocides on unimproved pasture. Its precise breeding requirements are unknown so a mosaic of different swards heights and bare ground could be beneficial to allow a dung to fall in a variety of situations. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 5. Remedial action identified |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Life history factor/s |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Hister Pisistratus can be difficult to identify |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Implement year round low intensity cattle grazing at sites across the key landscapes. Do not use endectocides. In winter cattle should not be fed in silage, maize or soya since this affects the quality of the dung and its nutritional value to coprophagous invertebrate larvae.
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 50 sites
High priority sites: Known sites should be sought from the Histeridae Recording Scheme and Local Environmental Records Centres
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Produce an easy-to-use, free guide to non-scarabid dung-utilising beetles, highlighting the identification features of Histerid species including H. Pisistratus etc.
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Education/awareness raising
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Produce a status review of England's dung and carrion invertebrate assemblage including the results of research into the impact of veterinarian livestock inputs on this fauna. This would benefit both this species and many others within TSRA.
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.