Scarce Brown Sedge (Ironoquia dubia)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - caddis fly (Trichoptera) > Caddisfly |
| Red List Status: | Critically Endangered (Not Relevant) [CR(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: | Ironoquia dubia |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Stephens, 1837) |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Wallace, 2016 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | IUCN status awarded as there had been no recent records and a 2010 visit to two 1994 sites failed to find it. Subsequently found at a new site of Thompson Common, Norfolk and re-found in the Honey Brook, Pamber Forest which would change status to endangered but it seems likely to remain a very rare species. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Locating additional populations seems a priority. |
| 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: | General habitat diversification seems unlikely to benefit this species. but moderate tree cover is probably important. Small streams under trees that are dry over summer and a sandy substratum may be the key and they may not be easy to reproduce. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 2. Biological status assessment exists |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Relict or natural rarity |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | The sites are small to moderate-sized streams that dry up over summer but seem otherwise unremarkable. It seems unlikely that there will be enough sites to eventually move this to a Least Concern status but hopefully it can be maintained where it is and a few new sites added. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Establish an eDNA method to detect the species using the Stow Bedon stream at Thompson Common as a study site.
Action targets: 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: 1 site
High priority sites: Stow Bedon Stream, Thompson Common.
Comments: Notes in some continental works suggest this may be quite sparse in a water body so could be missed in normal surveys but hopefully detected by eDNA.
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Compile water chemistry, water temperature and water level measurements for the Stow Bedon stream, Thompson Common and the Honey Brook, Pamber Forest.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: Stow Bedon Stream, Thompson Common and Honey Brook, Pamber Forest.
Comments: Data would be useful to check if any future declines might be due to water issues. Data could also help identify new sites.
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Develop protocols for a captive breeding programme if this becomes necessary. Could also be needed if there was a wish to try re-introduction to the Badger's Brook, Windsor Forest and surveys including eDNA confirm it is absent from there.
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Ex situ conservation
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: 1 site
High priority sites:
Comments: Casual observations by Ian Wallace and Dutch colleagues suggest this would not be a particularly difficult species to establish a breeding population.
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.