Bledius diota
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: | Bledius diota |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | Schiødte, 1866 |
| 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: | An intertidal saline specialist of saltmarshes, estuaries and intertidal sand and mud flats. Of the records with habitat details, most refer to its collection on the banks of intertidal reaches of rivers. The majority of post-79 records come from a group of relatively contiguous sites along the North Norfolk coast (East Norfolk, vc27 and West Norfolk, vc28). There are also recent records from Saltfleetby, North Lincolnshire (vc54), as well as an anomalous inland record from Thorndon Park, Ingrave, South Essex (vc18). Though its British populations appear stable currently the small AoO (44 km²) with nine locations and the increasing threat of rising sea levels to coastal habitats mean that conservation actions are necessary. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | No |
| Justification: | There are a suite of threatened rove beetles occurring on British saltmarshes. These are at risk from the impacts of sea level rise and increasing storm surges. Both are thought to be a consequence of current changes in climate (especially the ongoing increase in average global temperatures). They cause erosion of the saltmarsh through increasing inundation and wave action. Most of our saltmarshes are backed by artificial sea defences, so it is not possible for saltmarsh habitats to move back inland naturally in response to such changes. Landscape scale coastal management strategies for sea level rise will be required to mitigate this. |
| 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: | The main threat to this species is loss of salt marsh habitats to rising sea levels. Management and mitigation against sea level rise such as staged retreats and realignment of sea defences will benefit this species. |
Species Assessment
Not relevant as no Key Actions defined.
Key Actions
No Key Actions Defined
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.