6-spotted Longhorn (Anoplodera sexguttata)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - beetle (Coleoptera) > Longhorn 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: | Anoplodera sexguttata |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Fabricius, 1775) |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Alexander, 2019 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | The species requires future veteran trees to be developing at an adequate rate and in adequate numbers. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Untargeted habitat management is unlikely to provide conditions suitable for the development of successive generations of veteran trees |
| 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: | No |
| Justification: | This species would not benefit from untargeted management |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 4. Autecology and pressures understood |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Relict or natural rarity |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Modern British records are from just six locations: Watersmeet Woods (Devon), Bardney Forest (Lincolnshire), New Forest (Hampshire), Savernake Forest (Wiltshire), the Castle Hill Deer Park and Windy Pits SSSI area of the Duncombe Park Estate in the North York Moors, and Nupend Wood, Fownhope, Herefordshire. The first five sites have had a succession of observations and the species is clearly established in these; the status of the sixth remains unclear.1969). The larvae seem to develop specifically in dead wood of oak that has been decayed by the fungus Hymenochaete rubiginosa. This is most often found fruiting on old, decorticated oak stumps and lying oak deadwood in humid, fairly shaded situations but may also be active in the old deadwood of standing living oak trees provided the dead heartwood is exposed externally to the air. Adults favour open, sunny areas flying actively to blossom in the field layer, including the white flowers of Meadowsweet, Wild Angelica, Marsh Valerian, and Meadow-rue. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: At sites where the species occurs, establish monitoring protocol for potential host veteran trees and future veterans, to determine whether there is an adequate rate of replacement
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 10 sites
High priority sites: Watersmeet Woods (Devon), Bardney Forest (Lincolnshire), New Forest (Hampshire), Savernake Forest (Wiltshire), the Castle Hill Deer Park and Windy Pits SSSI area of the Duncombe Park Estate in the North York Moors, and Nupend Wood, Fownhope, Herefordshire.
Comments: A generic action that would apply to much of the saproxylic fauna at these sites not no harm using this species to push for that action, especially within the SSSI locations.
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Undertake autecological research to better characterise habitat requirements and inform management. Focus on actual or likely distances travelled by beetles to suitable trees to establish planting density of open grown trees.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 10 sites
High priority sites: Watersmeet Woods (Devon), Bardney Forest (Lincolnshire), New Forest (Hampshire), Savernake Forest (Wiltshire), the Castle Hill Deer Park and Windy Pits SSSI area of the Duncombe Park Estate in the North York Moors, and Nupend Wood, Fownhope, Herefordshire.
Comments: Adults have mostly been recorded on flowers, though descriptions of woodland structure are general, and there seems to be a lack of observations of adult on trees that are potentially suitable for larval development.
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Create a UK DNA sequence, and primers to allow eDNA sampling.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: 1 site
High priority sites: Watersmeet Woods (Devon), New Forest (Hampshire), Savernake Forest (Wiltshire)
Comments: To allow a focus on larval development sites through less invasive detection in saproxylic substrates.
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.