The descriptive text, below the map, is from the Cornish Red Data Book (2009). The map on this web page depicts the organisms distribution and shows the records made pre-2000 and those made since.
Range & Status
Always very localised in England, but has been very much scarcer in recent years.
Regional Distribution
A speciality of Bodmin Moor: discovered at Treneglos (Wollaston, 1844) and re-discovered on the Moor by K.C. Side in 1972. It is said to have been found more recently, during the 1980s, but the details are not available (Luff, 1998).
Habitat & Ecology
Larvae are parasitic on the leaf beetle Galeruca tanaceti and perhaps other leaf beetles, and found in two very different types of situation - fen meadow or chalk downland.
Threats
Agricultural intensification, including drainage works; abandonment or tree planting of rough pastures.
Conservation
Protection from agricultural improvement and development of remaining wild areas of Bodmin Moor.
I.J. Bennallick, S. Board, C.N. French, P.A. Gainey, C. Neil, R. Parslow, A. Spalding and P.E. Tompsett. eds. 2009. Red Data Book for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 2nd Edition.Croceago Press.
The Cornish Red Data Book Project was led by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Federation for Biological Recorders (CISFBR). The full text and species accounts (minus the maps) are available on the CISFBR website.