Red Carpet (Xanthorhoe decoloraria)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - moth > Moth |
| Red List Status: | (Not Relevant) [(not listed)(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Xanthorhoe decoloraria |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Esper, 1806) |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | (not listed) |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | GB Red List (Fox et al. 2019): NT; GB long term distribution decline of 62% and abundance decline of 89%. Both trends are likely to be worse in England than GB. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Reasons for its decline are unknown but may relate to intensification of management in the uplands or on climatic factors. Research is needed to understand the causes of decline. |
| 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: | As per question 2 |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 2. Biological status assessment exists |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Climate change |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | As knowledge of the reasons for decline are not known, the recovery potential is poorly understood but as an upland species at the southern edge of its range in England, and appearing to show a greater decline in England than Scotland, climate change appears to be a restricting factor in any recovery. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Undertake research into reasons for decline.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 6-10 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites:
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.