Astenus serpentinus
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - beetle (Coleoptera) > Rove beetle (macrostaph) |
| 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: | Astenus serpentinus |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Motschulsky, 1858) |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Boyce, 2022 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | This species has a very limited British range and is entirely confined to England. It is now only known from a roughly 50km stretch of the South Devon (VC3) coastline; from Westcombe Beach, near Ringmore, eastwards just to the south of Brixham, at Man Sands. Historically known from East Cornwall (VC2) but no post-1979 records. The population currently appears stable in Devon but it faces threats from loss of suitable habitat conditions due to lack of management. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Conservation actions to benefit this species will be predominantly general habitat management to create open and early-successional conditions, but targeted survey to confirm current distribution will be important to identify and target high priority sites. |
| 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: | Astenus serpentinus is associated with warm, sparsely-vegetated, microhabitats on steep south-facing sea cliffs. Suitable habitat conditions are maintained by active erosion, and possibly grazing and salt spray. There is the potential for currently unknown populations of this species to occur along the Devon and Cornwall coastlines as Staphylinidae are under recorded and habitats may be hard to survey. Creation/restoration of early successional microhabitats more widely along the Devon and Cornish coasts may benefit this species alongside a suite of other coastal cliff species. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 4. Autecology and pressures understood |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Medium-high |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Due to specific habitat requirements recovery will be limited by availability of these habitats – south-facing sea cliffs - however, relatively large areas of coastal cliff might be bought back into more suitable condition by improvements in habitat management, meaning there is moderate recovery potential within its known historic range in Devon and Cornwall. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Targeted survey of known sites in Devon and historic sites in Cornwall (and potentially suitable nearby sites) to establish current distribution and status.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 20 sites
High priority sites: Devon: Coastal cliffs from Westcombe Beach, near Ringmore, eastwards just to the south of Brixham, at Man Sands. Historic Cornish sites.
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Autecological study of populations identified by action 1 to better understand ecological requirements of this species.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 10 sites
High priority sites: Extant populations identified in action 1.
Comments:
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Bring sea cliff habitats back into suitable condition (as identified by action 2) - e.g. through reinstating or increasing grazing and implementing scrub/bracken clearance to create warm, sparsely-vegetated microhabitats.
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 10 sites
High priority sites: Coastal cliffs from Westcombe Beach, near Ringmore, eastwards just to the south of Brixham, at Man Sands. Any other extant sites identified by action 1.
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.