New Forest Mud Beetle (Helophorus laticollis)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - beetle (Coleoptera) > Water beetle |
| Red List Status: | Endangered (Not Relevant) [EN(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: | Helophorus laticollis |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | Thomson, C.G., 1853 |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Foster, 2010 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | There are modern records for just 3 hectads and historic records for only 4 more but H. laticollis has not been found in Dorset since 1892 or Surrey since 1929 (Foster et al, 2018). Helophorus laticollis is a NERC Act S41 'species of principal importance'. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | H. laticollis is a very rare specialist and its biology poorly known (Dodd & Denton 2023). The loss of any remaining population would increase the likelihood of its extinction in Britain. It is not found in Wales or Scotland. |
| 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: | Helophorus laticollis is too rare to benefit from 'wider countryside' measures. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Unknown |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Ad hoc recording as part of GB water beetle recording scheme (Balfour-Browne Club/Aquatic Coleoptera Conservation Trust) |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Recent targeted surveys in the New Forest need to be repeated at an optimal time of year with a view to clarifying the species' status and ensuring that appropriate management is in place for any remaining population centres.
Action targets: 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: Unknown
High priority sites: New Forest NP.
Comments: Sites in 3 hectads in New Forest. The following recent report provides a useful assessment of potential threats, despite the null results (thought to reflect suboptimal timing of sampling): Dodd, S.G. & Denton, J.S. (2023). Targeted Survey and Habitat Assessment for the New Forest Mud Beetle (Helophorus laticollis) at Selected Sites in the New Forest. Forestry England New Forest Mud Beetle Project (New Forest) Report. Project No. 4060-A.
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.