Wormwood Moonshiner (Amara fusca)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - beetle (Coleoptera) > Ground beetle |
| Red List Status: | Endangered (Not Relevant) [EN(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: | Amara fusca |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | Dejean, 1828 |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Telfer, 2016 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Always very rare in England - no records between 1942 and 1994 - now confined to a single hectad in Breckland in Suffolk. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Appropriate site management is essential to maintain populations of the host plant(s). |
| 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: | Habitat management that maintains early successional stages on sandy soils should favour this species within its current range |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 4. Autecology and pressures understood |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Unknown |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Combination - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Feeds on seeds of Artemisia sp., thought to have a preference for Breckland wormwood (Artemisia campestris) but this rare plant is present at only a few sites and A. fusca has also been observed in association with Common Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) and Yarrow at sites where A. campestris is absent. Recovery potential depends on ability to disperse between sites and how well populations do on alternative host plants. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Continue to monitor populations on key sites and search for A. fusca on other Artemesia species within Breckland to assess population viability on different host plants
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 10 sites
High priority sites: Main sites are College Heath Road, Mildenhall, and London Road Industrial Estate, Brandon.
Comments: Action may build on current monitoring. Alternative hosts even if not viable for long-term population persistence may provide important stepping stones for dispersal of A. fusca through Breckland.
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Look for opportunities to create habitat for Artemisia campestris (including translocation?)
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: Suitable sites in proximity to existing known populations of Artemisia campestris / Amara fusca
Comments:
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Translocation of Amara fusca to new sites if dispersal potential is assessed to be insufficient.
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: (Re-)introduction
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: Sites established by Key Action 2.
Comments: Work currently underway with Barnham zoo to establish whether conservation rearing and headstarting is feasible.
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.