Stenus cicindeloides (Schaller, 1783)

This generally common wetland species occurs throughout the entire Palaearctic region from Europe east to China and Japan, it occurs from lowland to low mountain altitudes throughout Europe except for the far north and is widespread in North Africa, including Madeira, and the Near east and has recently been recorded from Iran. It is common throughout England and Wales including the islands, although less so in the West Country, and more local and scattered through Scotland and Ireland. Adults occur in all types of wetland habitats including coastal pools and salt marsh margins, they are generally common on well-vegetated margins of still and running water, especially on reeds, rushes and among dense growths of reed sweet-grass (Glyceria maxima (Hartm,)), often on flood plains and permanently damp grassland, they almost always occur in numbers and often alongside other members of the genus, including the similar S. solutus Erichson, 1840. They are present year-round and active from early spring until late in the year, spending most of their time on the ground or low down on marginal vegetation but during warm weather they climb stems and foliage and are easily spotted. Both adults and larvae are predatory and both are adapted to hunt small insects and springtails etc. in marginal situations, the adults with long legs, large eyes and extendable mouthparts, and the larvae with long legs, palps and mandibles, adults have bilobed tarsal segments and so can move easily on stems and foliage, they can also move very quickly on the water surface by secreting strong detergents from the abdomen. For most of the year they may be sampled by sweeping or pitfall trapping, and during the winter they sometimes appear in samples of reed-litter or stems.