Dermestoides sanguinicollis (Fabricius, 1787)
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POLYPHAGA Emery, 1886
CLEROIDEA Latreille, 1802
KORYNETINAE Laporte, 1836
Dermestoides Schäffer, 1771
Widespread across Southern Europe from Spain to Greece but very rare and with occasional records further north to Denmark and Poland, this is among the rarest of the Western Palaearctic clerids; it is very rare throughout its range and is Red-Listed in most countries, there is only single records from Spain, it was last recorded from Slovenia in the 19th Century and it is considered to be extinct in Sweden. It was added to the British list when a single specimen was found in Hertfordshire during May 2018 (Asaw & Barclay, 2018) but there have been no further records. The typical habitat is old established deciduous woodland with plenty of old oak trees in various stages of decay, adults are usually collected from mature oaks and while an association with the cerambycid Cerambyx cerdo L. has been suggested this may simply reflect a shared habitat preference. Adults appear in Europe from April and persist until July, they are crepuscular and fly about trunks from sunset but in general only single specimens are recorded. Little is known of the biology but it is likely that adults predate other insects and larvae predate a range of insect larvae living in dead or dying oak trunks. The British specimen is almost certainly from wood imported from Europe but when this occurred cannot be known as, given the lifestyle of the species it is likely to go unrecorded for some time; a recent increase in the use of flight-interception traps in Europe has produced new records of the species, and employing this method on old oaks may produce many more.
7-9 mm. Elongate, convex and discontinuous in outline, dorsal surface with erect dark pubescence, head black or dark grey, pronotum orange, elytra shiny dark blue, antennae orange with dark clubs, femora dark brown, tibiae dark brown or becoming pale apically, tarsi orange. Head short and broad, slightly broader than the apical pronotal margin, surface uneven between convex and anteriorly emarginate eyes. Terminal maxillary palpomeres narrow and cylindrical. Antennae inserted anteriorly above the outer margin of the mandibles, 11-segmented with long and compact 3-segmented club. Pronotum slightly transverse, broadest near the middle and narrowed to rounded anterior angles and a constriction before perpendicular posterior angles, basal margin distinctly bordered, lateral margins finely so, surface evenly convex and very finely punctured. Elytra elongate and weakly dilated behind the middle, shoulders rounded and apical margin continuous and rather broadly explanate, basal half with large and very fine punctures, apical half or third with only very fine punctures. Legs short and slender, tibiae hardly broadened from the base, front tibiae without apical spurs. Tarsi 5-segmented; segments 1-3 bilobed, 4 tiny and hardly visible within the lobes of the third, terminal segment long and curved. Claws broadly toothed at the base. Superficially similar in overall shape and colour to female Tillus elongatus (Linnaeus, 1758) but easily distinguished by, among other things, the form of the antennae.