On a cold but sunny morning in mid-January 2025 I was photographing habitats as requested for the National Trust as part of the Invertebrate monitoring in the Swanbrooke valley west of Swanage.
I had taken a tray to ‘knock’ a few tufts of vegetation. The first beetle out of a clump of dead grass and Juncus was a lovely green specimen (see image) that I subsequently identified as a Drypta Dentata (a ground beetle) This was confirmed by the Dorset Beetle Recorder (Adrian Mylward).
This beetle has an Red Date Book category of Endangered and is local in Dorset and the Isle of Wight with sightings, according to the limited records, mostly occurring in the summer months.
Its known habitat in this country is coastal, partly vegetated sandy cliffs and slippages near fresh water. Therefore, this observation was surprising because of the date seen and the habitat (base of a field hedgerow).
Further surveys, further down the valley and on Swanage coastal cliffs and slippages have not yet revealed any further specimens but we will continue searching for this beetle this year.
It is quite likely that this beetle is a night time predator moving about the bases of Juncus in search of tiny prey items and not easily observable during the day.
On the continent it has been found on floodplains and meadows with recordings for summer and winter months.
The finding has been written up by Adrian Mylward and the note is published in the The Coleopterist magazine: Volume 34 Part 2, page 59.
Chris Spilling
