Sphodrine dreams

In the last post I mentioned that I'd been to a Carabid course at the BENHS Dinton Pastures. While there I was looking at some of the drawers of the carabids that they hold in their collection. As I was looking I came across some specimens of a rather large carabid that I didn't immediately recognise. It was also sat taxonomically in a place that confused me, between Calathus and Laemostenus. 

I'm not sure how I'd missed these whilst reading the various books I have on beetles but this one had oddly slipped through. The genus Sphodrus.

I asked Mark Telfer about them, and their story, what little there is of it, is rather fascinating. Sphodrus leucopthalmus probably originates in the Near East and spread as "civilisation" did. It was found in cellars and other dark and damp places such as outdoor buildings where it apparently preyed on the Blaps spp. that also frequented this habitat. Both species were highly dependent on places created by pre-modern man.

Over the last couple of hundred of years but especially in the last 50 or 60, Blaps mucronota populations have crashed as the places they once were found have been lost. Cellars have, for the majority of houses been lost and most out buildings have gone or are just generally tidier; watertight with concrete floors.

The impressive predator that is Sphodrus leucopthalmus hasn't been seen in the UK since the late 70s/early 80s and has apparently also had a similar crash across all its former range.

Is it now extinct in the UK or does it hang on quietly in a cellar or barn-complex remnant somewhere? Presumably, where reasonably-sized populations of Blaps still exist there is a possibility that Sphodrus does too.

I have to admit to being fascinated by this story. Its has special resonance as I still have Blaps living under the house, occasionally appearing in the kitchen late at night to feed on scraps of food. I wonder if in the distant past there were Sphodrus there too?