Dermestes undulatus
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - beetle (Coleoptera) > Wood boring 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: | Dermestes undulatus |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | Brahm, 1790 |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Alexander, 2017 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Key period of decline appears to have been pre-1990; however, the data does suggest a continuing and significant reduction in the area of occupancy |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Lack of evidence |
| 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: | Creation of habitat mosaics would likely benefit this species |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 2. Biological status assessment exists |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Unknown |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Easily overlooked and probably under-recorded |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Targeted survey of sites with potentially suitable habitat
Action targets: 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 20 sites
High priority sites: Sites with potentially suitable habitat
Comments: Most survey techniques for this and related species use passive trapping or require destruction of the micro-habitats. This makes it very difficult to elucidate much in the way of autecological information
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Define autecology of larvae and adults at known sites and using captive populations.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites:
Comments: Answering some of the autecological questions may be fairly straightforward. Difficult to observe the larvae directly without damaging the habitat, but PCR-based gut content analysis of larvae and adults may provide useful data
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.