Euthiconus conicicollis (Fairmaire & Laboulbene, 1854)

The only western Palaearctic member of the genus, this very local and generally rare species occurs mostly in central Europe from France to central Italy and the Balkan Peninsula north to Denmark and the south of Sweden, it is very rare in Poland and otherwise absent from the Baltic countries, and the eastern limit of the distribution is probably Romania and Bulgaria. The typical habitat is old established deciduous woodland with plenty of decaying trees where adults have been found among damp rotting wood in hollows and under bark, usually in the vicinity of various ants such as Lasius brunneus (Latreille, 1798), L. fuliginosus (Latreille, 1798) or Formica rufa Linnaeus, 1761, or among damp moss and litter at the base of old trees. The species was first recorded from the UK from Berkshire in 1999 (Booth, 2001) when a single female was found in a flight-interception trap situated close to an old fallen beech tree in Silwood Park but there are no more recent records. Little is known of the biology but adults have been found through the summer and, typical of the family, are likely to occur year-round and both adults and larvae are likely to predate mites.

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1.0-1.15 mm. Elongate-oval and discontinuous in outline, entirely mid- to dark shiny brown, often with the head and elytra darker, head and body with sparse semi-erect long and curved pubescence. Head transverse from above, concave between weakly convex eyes and laterally raised in front of the eyes over the antennal insertions. Maxillary palps apparently three segmented; basal segment small and narrow, second segment long and expanded near the base, the third segment greatly expanded from the base and accommodating a diminutive apical segment. Antennae 11-segmented, basal segment long and parallel-sided, second segment rounded and about as wide as the first, 3-8 narrow and elongate, 9-11 broader, forming a long and loose club. Pronotum quadrate, broadest in the basal quarter and narrowed to a curved apical margin, posterior angles almost perpendicular, surface smooth and sparsely punctured but for four well-defined depressions along the base. Elytra evenly curved from sloping shoulders to separately-rounded apical margins that leave the pygidium exposed, across the base as wide as the base of the pronotum, surface punctured as the pronotum and with four basal fovea, without striae although with various longitudinal impressions from the base. Hind coxae broadly separated.  Legs long and slender, femora weakly expanded about the middle, tibiae weakly expanded from the base and without obvious apical spurs. Tarsi with five simple segments, the terminal segment longer than the others. Claws smooth and simple at the base.