Aphodius lividus
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - beetle (Coleoptera) > Scarab beetle or ally |
| 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: | Labarrus lividus |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Olivier, 1789) |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Lane and Mann, 2016 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Labarrus lividus has always been scarce with only four post 1990 locations in England. Formerly more widespread, but always highly localised. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Labarrus lividus occupies patch habitats not necessarily created through habitat management. |
| 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: | Yes, if this involved grazing animals in the absence of endectocides on unimproved pasture. Its precise breeding requirements are unknown so a mosaic of different swards heights and bare ground could be beneficial to allow a dung to fall in a variety of situations. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 2. Biological status assessment exists |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Medium-high |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | As a eurytopic species found in dung and compost heaps it is possibly overlooked in these under-sampled habitats. It is a globally cosmopolitan species found in warmer climates than Britain, where it is at its northern range, and may well thrive under a changing climate. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Encourage organic and re-generative farming techniques that allow an accumulation of decaying vegetation and endectocide free dung heaps
Action targets: 2. Biological status assessment exists
Action type: Landscape/catchment/marine management
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites: Known sites should be sought from the Scarabidae Recording Scheme and Local Environmental Records Centres
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Targeted non-lethal monitoring to assess population trends in response to changes in land management techniques around known populations
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 10 sites
High priority sites: Known sites should be sought from the Scarabidae Recording Scheme and Local Environmental Records Centres
Comments: monitoring of Action 1 results
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Field study to establish exact habitat requirements for A. lividus to breed successfully and understand its dispersal capability.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 10 sites
High priority sites: Known sites should be sought from the Scarabidae Recording Scheme and Local Environmental Records Centres
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.