Silt Silver-spot (Bracteon argenteolum)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - beetle (Coleoptera) > Ground 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: | Bracteon argenteolum |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Ahrens, 1812) |
| 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: | Although recorded from two localities in the modern period, it is probably extinct at Dungeness where it is likely to have been an immigrant. Only a single individual was found there in 1987 and the site is well worked by entomologists. The population discovered at Cavenham in 2002-2003 on an aggregates working must be regarded as highly vulnerable to changes in management, although recent aerial photos suggest the site continues to be actively worked with extensive areas of suitable habitat (bare sand and silt). Actions targeting this privately owned site for monitoring purposes are probably impractical, as access permissions are unlikely to be granted for a variety of reasons. It is conceivable that the species exists undetected at other similar sites. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Species would benefit from status assessment to understand true EOO and AOO. |
| 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: | N/A |
| Justification: |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 1. Taxonomy established |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Unknown |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Status assessment to understand true EOO and AOO.
Action targets: 1. Taxonomy established
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites: Cavenham aggregates site (private) and local area.
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.