Onthophilus punctatus (Muller, O.F., 1776)

This species occurs locally across central and southern Europe from Spain to Greece and Ukraine and north to Denmark and the UK, it is very local and rare in Poland but otherwise absent from the Baltic countries, it is known from the larger Mediterranean islands, North Africa and Asia Minor and extends east into Asia although the eastern limit of the distribution is not known. The nominate subspecies occurs throughout the European range while ssp. cicatricosus Reitter, 1884 occurs in the south from Italy to Greece and Turkey, and ssp. caucasicus Reitter, 1890 is restricted to Ukraine and parts of South European Russia. The species has declined in the UK over recent decades and this seems to be ongoing; it was formerly widespread in the south from Hampshire to the Wash but it is now very local and known mostly from South Hampshire and East Anglia. In central and northern Europe the majority of records are from mammal nests, especially Mole (Talpa europaea L.) but frequently from Fox (Vulpes vulpes (L.)), Badger (Meles meles L.) and others, and in the UK most recorded are from Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus (l.)) and Mole burrows. More generally the species has been recorded from a wide range of habitats, usually in open situations on light and free draining soils such as heathland, brecklands, dunes and common; adults have been recorded from dung and carrion, under stones and matted decaying vegetation, among compost and potato mounds, in decaying old trees and fungi, and in mixed straw and dung. In Turkey the species has been taken at a decaying pig carcass and from traps baited with decaying eggs and melons. Adults occur throughout the year and are active in all but the coldest winter periods, they peak in abundance during the spring and again late autumn and early winter and are only occasionally recorded during July and August. Little is known of the biology but both adults and larvae are probably predatory, feeding on small insects and larvae etc., and from the phenology it is likely that larvae develop through the summer. Adults are mostly crepuscular and nocturnal, they occur on the ground and can run fast but no doubt disperse by flight, and they may be sampled by sieving suitable material or by pitfall trapping at any time.