Agathidium laevigatum Erichson, 1845

A Palaearctic species also known from the Oriental region; the nominate subspecies occurs throughout the range and is locally common throughout central and northern Europe, reaching to the far north of Fennoscandia, less so to the south where it extends from Portugal to Greece and is present on most of the Mediterranean islands. A further subspecies, meridianum Hlisnikovsky, 1964 is known from North Africa and the Canary Islands. There are scattered records throughout mainland UK and Northern Ireland and the species is present on Anglesey, Man, Orkney and the Western Isles; it is generally very local and scarce and there seems to have been a gradual decline over recent decades but it remains locally common in Kent, East Anglia and parts of the English midlands, and across North Wales and Anglesey. Typical habitats are damp woodland, Carr, fens and wooded parkland and grassland from lowland to alpine altitudes where the species is associated with a wide range of both broadleaf and coniferous trees, in lowland forests often on Birch (Betula L.)and Oak (Quercus L.), and at higher altitudes often on Spruce (Picea Mill.) and Pine (Pinus L.). Adults are present year-round; they overwinter among litter or under damaged bark and are active from March until September or October, peaking in abundance during May and June. Little is known of the biology but adults are nocturnal and usually appear on trunks etc. in the vicinity of fungal sporocarps or mould-infested wood, and larvae (typical of the genus) probably develop through the summer among slime moulds (Eumycetozoa). Adults may be found by nocturnal searching but they are generally more common among mosses and damp leaf-litter in wooded areas and though they sometimes appear in decaying fungi in the autumn they do not seem to be generally associated with terrestrial sporocarps, they disperse by flight on warm spring and summer evenings and so may appear in flight-interception traps.