Sphaeridium lunatum
Length 5.5 to 7.5 mm. A very smooth, blackish dome shaped beetle with pale yellow tips to the lytra and faint reddish blotches on its sides.
Requires gen det to be certain of species.
Around herbivorous animals.
April to October.
Adults feed on the fresh dung of herbivorous animals; their young are predators of small insect larvae.
Fairly frequent and widespread in England and Wales.
Fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. There were a total of 32 VC55 records for this species up to March 2015.
David Nicholls
Ulverscroft
21 June 2014
AJ Cann
Billesdon Woodland Pool
03 February 2024
David Gould
Croft Pasture
26 June 2014
Graham Calow
Sapcote
20 July 2013
specimen examined
David Nicholls
Westfields Tennis Club
08 April 2010
Leicestershire & Rutland Map
Enter a town or village to see local records
MAP KEY:
Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2025+ | 2020-2024 | pre-2020
UK Map
Species profile
- Species group:
- Beetles
- Kingdom:
- Animalia
- Order:
- Coleoptera
- Family:
- Hydrophilidae
- Records on NatureSpot:
- 11
- First record:
- 01/05/1992 (Jon Daws)
- Last record:
- 26/05/2023 (Gray, Stephen)
Total records by month
% of records within its species group
10km squares with records
The latest images and records displayed below include those awaiting verification checks so we cannot guarantee that every identification is correct. Once accepted, the record displays a green tick.
In the Latest Records section, click on the header to sort A-Z, and again to sort Z-A. Use the header boxes to filter the list.