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
Old records cover a wide area of southern Britain, but its past status is difficult to ascertain due to taxonomic confusion. Very local and apparently increasingly scarce.
Regional Distribution
Discovered by R.T. Bannister at Kennack Sands in 1963 and found at Cape Cornwall by John Widgery in 2006.
Habitat & Ecology
Associated with damp places and the edges of wetlands, particularly where there is
luxuriant vegetation growth and where there are low shrubs. Eggs are laid in cracks in the older wood of trees and shrubs. It is mainly a predator, but occasionally feeds on flowers and unripe fruits, particularly of Fabaceae.
Threats
Loss of transitional woody growth/low herbaceous wetland vegetation, e.g. through
drainage and conversion to productive pasture, abandonment and successional change to denser scrub.
Conservation
Maintenance of rough pastures is needed.
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.