Thanasimus formicarius
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a European Red-Bellied Clerid sighting in Pyrénées National Park on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 940th most-seen of the 1277 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March–May and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a European Red-Bellied Clerid in Pyrénées National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January–February and June–November, 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.
5th of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate European Red-Bellied Clerid sightings, Pyrénées National Park ranks 5th at under 5%. The best odds are in Białowieża National Park (Poland, about 10%), Bavarian Forest National Park (Germany, about 10%) and Cairngorms National Park (United Kingdom, about 10%).
Same family: Cleridae
The closest relatives of the European Red-Bellied Clerid that you can see in Pyrénées National Park (family Cleridae, Checkered Beetles) are Trichodes alvearius (about 10%), Bee-Eating Beetle (about 10%) and Trichodes leucopsideus (about 10%), 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 Pyrénées National Park (7 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.
