Cryptophagus scutellatus Newman, 1834

This Western Palaearctic species occurs throughout Europe from Portugal to northern Italy and the Black Sea although it is generally absent from the Balkan Peninsula, to the north it reaches the UK and the Arctic Circle in Fennoscandia and is recorded from Iceland, it extends east into Western Russia and is widespread across the Near East and North Africa, it has also become established in North America European adventives; in Canada from 1928 and from the United States from 1961. In the UK it is widespread though local and probably under recorded across Central and Eastern England and Wales and there are scattered records north to Southern Scotland and in Ireland. Little is known of the biology but adults occur decaying organic matter in a range of situations e.g. in compost, fungoid tree hollows and decaying bark, bird nests, mammal burrows and nests, and among bundles of decaying cut reeds and vines, they have been recorded among organic waste in caves are also synanthropic, occasionally occurring among stored plant material. On the continent it has been recorded from a range of decaying broadleaf trees, mammal and bird nests as well as those of the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) and red wood ant (Formica rufa L.), and among various fungi including Laetiporus sulphureus (Bull.), Fomes fomentarius (L.) and Trametes cinnabarinus (Jacq.: Fr.). In North America they occur in mixed as well as broadleaf forests.  Adults are present year-round, they are most commonly recorded during the first half of the year, from January, and much less frequently so from August or September into December. Given the range of adult habitats the larvae are likely to be generalist feeders on fungal spores and hyphae. The best way to sample adults is by sieving or extracting likely material from early spring, they usually occur randomly and as single specimens but large numbers occasionally occur together.