Silpha tyrolensis Laicharting, 1781

This is a mostly western and central European species; it is locally common in subalpine and alpine regions from the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Carpathians as well as other mountain areas of Spain, France and southern Europe but is otherwise very local and sporadic. There are modern records from Austria, Italy, Romania, Germany and Switzerland, and older records from Poland, and it may be that populations in the UK and the Czech Republic could be relicts from the last glaciations. But recent lowland records from Belgium (Scheers et al, 2020) and many older records from the UK demonstrate that the species is not wholly confined to mountain regions. Formerly widespread though very local in the UK from Wales and the midlands north to the Scottish Highlands and parts of Ireland, the species is now known only from Coll and Tiree in the Western Isles, but while the range has decreased drastically it remains common and even occasionally abundant where it occurs. The usual habitat is open grassland and pasture near to or above the tree line but more generally the species has been recorded from a variety of mostly upland and mountain sites including hay meadows and grazing pasture. Adults have been recorded from January to November and it is likely they overwinter; they are active from April until October and peak in abundance during June or July. They are mostly diurnal and spend much of their time under plant remains or debris but they often walk on open ground and sometimes in numbers. Both adults and larvae feed on insects, worms and molluscs but adults also consume leaves of grasses and other plants and, in captivity, they have fed on fruit and mushrooms. Little is known of the biology but reproduction probably occurs in the summer and at least some adults overwinter. Adults are often recorded in numbers from pitfall traps.