Chiloxanthus pilosus
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - true bug (Hemiptera) > Water bug |
| Red List Status: | Near Threatened (Not Relevant) [NT(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: | Chiloxanthus pilosus |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Fallén, 1807) |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Cook, 2015 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | This species is confined to England and has a very local distribution in saltmarsh habitats in parts of Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Suffolk on the east coast and in Lancashire and Cumbria on the west coast. There is evidence of historic decline and it is absent from many sites where other saltmarsh inhabiting shore bugs are present, for example the Thames estuary and south coast of England. However, saltmarshes are a priority habitat for invertebrates and generally receive a high level of survey effort and interest from entomologists. It is unlikely that targeted survey effort would significantly extend the known range of this species and many of its known localities are within sites designated for nature conservation. On this basis the species is not a priority candidate for recovery actions. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Could do with status assessment update |
| 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: | N/A |
| Justification: |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 1. Taxonomy established |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Unknown |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Chiloxanthus pilosus: This species is confined to England and has a very local distribution in saltmarsh habitats in parts of Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Suffolk on the east coast and in Lancashire and Cumbria on the west coast. NBN records are also given for Anglesey and Gwynedd and for Kent. There is evidence of historic decline and it is absent from many sites where other saltmarsh inhabiting shore bugs are present, for example the Thames estuary and south coast of England. However, saltmarshes are a priority habitat for invertebrates and generally receive a high level of survey effort and interest from entomologists. It is unlikely that targeted survey effort would significantly extend the known range of this species and some of its known localities are within sites designated for nature conservation. On this basis the species is not a priority candidate for recovery actions. The Tanyptera Project based at Liverpool World Museum have not targeted any searches for Chiloxanthus pilosus since the project was established. However a brief email exchange for this review has ignited interest and a survey may now be arranged on the Lancashire Coast. Target Glasswort with a petrol vacuum sucker might be fruitful in detection of this species. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Status assessment to understand true EOO and AOO.
Action targets: 2. Biological status assessment exists
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 1 year
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.