Six-spotted pot beetle (Cryptocephalus sexpunctatus)

Six-spotted pot beetle
Six-spotted pot beetle

Six-spotted pot beetle fact file

Six-spotted pot beetle description

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderColeoptera
FamilyChrysomelidae
GenusCryptocephalus

This shiny beetle has a yellow thorax and yellow wing-cases, which are each marked with three black spots. However, despite the common name, the number of spots on each wing-case may vary from three to four.

Size
Body length: 4.5 - 6.5 mm
Top

Six-spotted pot beetle biology

Adult beetles emerge around mid-May to mid-June, and the females lay their eggs whilst perched in low foliage. Each egg is held between the hind legs and a 'pot' made around it with the beetle's own droppings. This pot is then dropped into the leaf litter under the bush. The eggs hatch within three to four weeks. The larvae also construct pots for themselves out of droppings and this is thought to act as a defence mechanism. When danger threatens the larva retreats into its pot. Before pupation, the larva seals the pot. The adult beetles emerge from their pots, after a total development period of between 12 - 21 months, by cutting a hole at one end.

Top

Six-spotted pot beetle range

From historical records, this appears to have been a widely scattered species in the UK. There are records from Ayrshire and Dumfriesshire in Scotland, Wiltshire, Dorset, Hampshire, East and West Sussex, Essex, Suffolk, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Lincolnshire. Since 1970 however, there have only been sightings in Essex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Kirkcudbrightshire, with only a single recent record coming from Kirkcudbright in 2000. Elsewhere, this species is found in northern, central and southern Europe.

You can view distribution information for this species at the National Biodiversity Network Gateway.

Top

Six-spotted pot beetle habitat

The six-spotted pot beetle is a species of scrub margin on calcareous grassland and woodland edge, and has been found on hazel, birch, aspen, crack willow, hawthorn and young oak. It has also been found on the flowers of wood spurge. The species possibly occurred previously in coppiced woodland.

Top

Six-spotted pot beetle status

Classified as Vulnerable in the UK.

Top

Six-spotted pot beetle threats

The main threats to this species are the lack of management of its preferred woodland. The cessation of coppicing probably contributed to the beetle's earlier decline.

Top

Six-spotted pot beetle conservation

The six-spotted pot beetle is listed in the UK Biodiversity Action Plans and included in English Nature's Species Recovery Programme. It is important that more information is gathered about this species' habitat requirements and its ecology, as well as the other members of the Cryptocephalus group of leaf beetles. It is also possible that other populations still exist within the beetle's historical range, and a number of surveys are being carried out to assess the true status of the species.

There may be further information about this species available via the National Biodiversity Network Gateway.

The UK Biodiversity Action Plan for this species is available at UK BAP.

Top

Authentication

Information supplied by English Nature.

http://www.english-nature.org.uk

Top

Glossary

Antennae
Pair of sensory structures on the head of invertebrates.
Calcareous
Containing free calcium carbonate, chalky.
Coppiced
Coppicing is a traditional form of woodland management in which trees are cut close to the base of the trunk. Re-growth occurs in the form of many thin poles. Coppiced woodlands are cut in this way on rotation, producing a mosaic of different stages of re-growth.
Thorax
Part of the body located near the head in animals. In insects, the three segments between the head and the abdomen, each of which has a pair of legs.
Top

References

More »Related species

Ten-spotted pot beetle (Cryptocephalus decemmaculatus)Pot beetle (Cryptocephalus primarius)Shining pot beetle (Cryptocephalus nitidulus)Pashford pot beetle (Cryptocephalus exiguus)Hazel pot beetle (Cryptocephalus coryli)Reed beetle (Donacia aquatica)Bloody-nosed beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa)Tansy beetle (Chrysolina graminis)

Please donate to ARKive today

Help us share the wonders of the natural world. Donate today!

Sign up to our newsletter

Get the latest wild news direct to your inbox.

Get involved

ARKive relies on its media donors to donate photos and videos. Can you help? There are plenty of other ways you can get involved too!

X
Close

Image credit

Six-spotted pot beetle  
Six-spotted pot beetle

© Ian Menzies

Ian Menzies
Villiers Lodge
1 Cranes Park
Surbiton
Surrey
KT5 8AB
United Kingdom

X
Close

Link to this photo

ARKive species - Six-spotted pot beetle (Cryptocephalus sexpunctatus) Embed this ARKive thumbnail link by copying and pasting the code below.

Terms of Use - The displayed thumbnail may be used as a link from your website to ARKive's online content for private, scientific, conservation or educational purposes only. It may NOT be used within Apps.

Read more about

X
Close

MyARKive

MyARKive offers the scrapbook feature to signed-up members, allowing you to organize your favourite ARKive images and videos and share them with friends.

X
Close

Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials

Copyright in this website and materials contained on this website (Material) belongs to Wildscreen or its licensors.

Visitors to this website (End Users) are entitled to:

  • view the contents of, and Material on, the website;
  • download and retain copies of the Material on their personal systems in digital form in low resolution for their own personal use;
  • teachers, lecturers and students may incorporate the Material in their educational material (including, but not limited to, their lesson plans, presentations, worksheets and projects) in hard copy and digital format for use within a registered educational establishment, provided that the integrity of the Material is maintained and that copyright ownership and authorship is appropriately acknowledged by the End User.

End Users shall not copy or otherwise extract, alter or manipulate Material other than as permitted in these Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials.

Additional use of flagged material

Green flagged material 

Certain Material on this website (Licence 4 Material) displays a green flag next to the Material and is available for not-for-profit conservation or educational use. This material may be used by End Users, who are individuals or organisations that are in our opinion not-for-profit, for their not-for-profit conservation or not-for-profit educational purposes. Low resolution, watermarked images may be copied from this website by such End Users for such purposes. If you require high resolution or non-watermarked versions of the Material, please contact Wildscreen with details of your proposed use.

Creative commons material

Certain Material on this website has been licensed to Wildscreen under a Creative Commons Licence. These images are clearly marked with the Creative Commons buttons and may be used by End Users only in the way allowed by the specific Creative Commons Licence under which they have been submitted. Please see http://creativecommons.org for details.

Any other use

Please contact the copyright owners directly (copyright and contact details are shown for each media item) to negotiate terms and conditions for any use of Material other than those expressly permitted above. Please note that many of the contributors to ARKive are commercial operators and may request a fee for such use.

Save as permitted above, no person or organisation is permitted to incorporate any copyright material from this website into any other work or publication in any format (this includes but is not limited to: websites, Apps, CDs, DVDs, intranets, extranets, signage, digital communications or on printed materials for external or other distribution). Use of the Material for promotional, administrative or for-profit purposes is not permitted.