violet click beetles
The violet click beetle is an extremely rare, elusive beetle which only occurs at 3 sites in the UK including Windsor Great Forest. Very little is known about the beetle except that it breeds in the hollow trunks of ancient trees and may be nocturnal. Click here to download a violet click beetle fact sheet.
People’s Trust for Endangered Species took on the role of Lead Partner for this Priority Species in the summer of 2007. We held our first steering group meeting in November in order to decide what the next steps should be and what work will be carried out in the near future.
Since then we have commissioned work at Windsor Great Park to re-erect fallen beech trunks. These, we hope will provide intermediate habitat for violet click beetles until smaller, younger trees reach the stage of decay the beetles require.
The next action will be to analyse the existing habitat data for Windsor in order to learn more about the beetle and its requirements. We would also like to carry out a repeat survey of the ancient trees and their condition.
Read more about the Trust’s saproxylics conference in 2002.
