Thanasimus formicarius
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
Thanasimus formicarius, the ant beetle or European red-bellied clerid, is a medium size insect, rather soft-bodied, with strong mandibles that can tear between the hard sclerotized integument of bark beetles. Larvae and adults are common predators of bark beetles in Europe.
The adults overwinter at the base of conifers, rarely of deciduous trees. They emerge in the spring and fly to lower parts of trees to hunt bark beetles. Their common prey are pine bark beetles Tomicus piniperda and T. minor, and the European spruce bark beetle, Ips typographus. Often they are seen waiting for their prey on the bark of fallen pine or spruce trees. Both ant beetles and bark beetles are attracted to monoterpenes from the damaged areas of the fallen trees. Stacked wood is especially attractive due to the monoterpene volatiles. The ant beetles are also attracted to specific pheromone components of bark beetles therefore they often fall into bark beetle pheromone traps. The larvae enter the scolytid galleries and feed on the immature stages of the bark beetles. The larvae grow very slowly, spending two years in the larval stage, and pupate in the fall in niches in the outer bark. Adults... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Białowieża National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 2 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 3 | Cairngorms National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 5 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a European Red-Bellied Clerid sighting in Cairngorms National Park on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 260th most-seen of the 300 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April–May and August
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a European Red-Bellied Clerid in Cairngorms National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June–July and September–March, the lowest months.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most European Red-Bellied Clerid sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 5 parks where we can rate European Red-Bellied Clerid sightings, Cairngorms National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Białowieża National Park (Poland, about 10%) and Bavarian Forest National Park (Germany, about 10%).
Same order: Coleoptera
The closest relatives of the European Red-Bellied Clerid that you can see in Cairngorms National Park (order Coleoptera, Beetles) are Woodland Dor Beetle (about 40%), Two-Banded Longhorn Beetle (about 30%) and Green Tiger Beetle (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the European Red-Bellied Clerid is recorded against all the insects logged in Cairngorms National Park (5 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
