Vincenzellus ruficollis (Panzer, 1794)

This species is locally common throughout much of Europe from Spain to Italy and Ukraine in the south, and more sporadic and local further north to the Baltic countries, the UK and southern provinces of Fennoscandia, it seems to be absent from the Mediterranean islands and the eastern limit of the distribution is north-west Russia. In the UK it is locally common across England north to Nottingham, very local and mostly coastal in the West Country and Wales and sporadic and generally scarce further north to the Scottish border and in Northern Ireland. Typical habitats are open woodland, wooded parkland and orchards but they also occur on individual larger trees in hedgerows and gardens. Adults are present year-round, during the autumn they usually retreat into crevices and are rarely seem among samples of subcortical refuse, but they sometimes overwinter among fallen brushwood or leaf-litter accumulated around the base of trunks. They are active over a long season from March or April, peaking in abundance during July and August, and are exclusively nocturnal and easy to spot as they crawl around on trunks and branches predating small insects and their early stages. Breeding occurs in the spring and larvae develop under bark, they are predatory and often occur near bark beetle burrows or among masses of mycelia and have been recorded from a wide range of deciduous trees, probably most frequently from Birch (Betula pendula Roth), Beech (Fagus sylvatica), oak (Quercus L.) and Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna Jacq.) but also commonly on Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum L.) and Lime (Tilia x europaea L.) among others. Little is known of the biology but we have found teneral adults from August in south Hertfordshire. Sampling is easiest by searching at night but adults are often recorded from flight-interception traps in wooded areas.