Where To Find Beetles  Back to county index  Back to species index

Devon

In a few wet broadleaved woods on the southwestern slopes of Dartmoor, the spectacular Blue Ground Beetle Carabus intricatus (Carabidae) may with luck be found, either under bark where a thick humus layer is present or running on moss-covered logs on warm humid days after rain, mainly from March to May. The introduced ground beetle Trechus subnotatus [RDB1] (Carabidae) is found on seepages on cliffs at Shaldon, where it should be sought in the spring and autumn.

Anchonidium unguiculare [RDB2] (Curculionidae) should be sought in leaf litter in damp coastal woods in the southwest of the county.

At Stoke Point and other clifftops on the south coast look around plant roots for the parthenogenetic weevils Cathormiocerus attaphilus [RDB1] and Cathormiocerus myrmecophilus [RDB3] (Curculionidae), in the summer and autumn. The weevil Hylobius transversovittatus [RDB1] (Curculionidae) may still occur on coastal landslips between Seaton and Lyme Regis, although it has not been found in the county for many years and is probably now confined to Somerset. It should be sought at the roots of Purple Loosestrife Lythraria salicaria in the spring and autumn.

The Colyton area has turned up a number of nationally rare species. The last record of the histerid Paralister obscurus [RDB1] (Histeridae) in the British Isles was from here, in 1947. The species should be sought in dung in the summer.

The island of Lundy holds a number of rare beetles. Pride of place goes to the endemic Lundy Flea Beetle Psylliodes luridipennis [RDB2] (Chrysomelidae), found on the equally endemic Lundy Cabbage Coincya wrightii. The host-plant and the beetle are still locally frequent on the eastern slope of the island above Landing Bay, but are only to be found in a few corners where the plant is protected from grazing sheep. Lundy has also turned up the lathridiid Melanophthalma distinguenda (Lathridiidae), otherwise known only from Steep Holm in Somerset.

County recorder: vacant