Scarce Iron Blue (Baetis digitatus)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - mayfly (Ephemeroptera) > Mayfly |
| 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: | Baetis digitatus |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | Bengtsson, 1912 |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Macadam, 2016 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | This species is listed as Vulnerable with records from only 21 hectads in Britain. Recent English records are from the south of England. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | No |
| Justification: | The main threats to this species are river pollution and water abstraction. |
| 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: | This species would benefit from actions to improve water quality and habitat quality, and limit abstraction in watercourses where it occurs. |
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.