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The Wildlife Trusts

© 2011. Database provided and managed on behalf of The Royal Horticultural Society/The Wildlife Trusts by The Plant Press. Designed and implemented by Ideal Integration Ltd

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Red-headed cardinal beetle - Pyrochroa serraticornis - Family: Pyrochroidae

Red-headed cardinal beetle - Pyrochroa serraticornisRed-headed cardinal beetle - Pyrochroa serraticornis
© Roger Key/English Nature
UK distribution - East Anglia, Midlands, North, South East, South West

This bright red beetle has black, comb-like antennae. Adult red-headed cardinal beetles are seen from May to July, occasionally on flowers but often on vegetation and tree bark in sunny weather. The brownish-cream larvae are extraordinarily flattened to enable them to live in very narrow spaces under loose bark. This beetle is common throughout England. A similar species, the black-headed cardinal beetle Pyrochroa coccinea may be found in gardens in Wales and the western Midlands but is rare in the rest of England.

The 250, 000 species of beetle found in the world include both the most bulky of all insects as well as some of the smallest. The adults of this species may often be found on herbaceous plants but do no harm to them.

Food

Predatory on other insects. Adults take flying insects from flowers and leaves, the larvae feed on larvae of other decaying wood-feeding insects living under the bark of broadleaved trees.

Prey

Beetles, Bugs, Flies

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