A live Death-watch Beetle can actually be one of the most difficult species to find on the trunks of Sherwood Forest's Oaks in our experience. But with a bit of effort, it will eventually give itself up to those willing to put an amount of effort in looking for it.

Xestobium rufovillosum, to give it its proper scientific name, is actually not that spectacular a beetle to look at, once you've eventually managed to track it down. On actually finding it, it can seem tremendously disappointing to be honest and it's certainly looked for more because of its name, than as a thing of beauty. And depending on the situation you eventually find it in, it can be little more than a fine sawdust covered shape with six legs. Don't expect much.

What's in a name?

Not having been into coleoptera at all until 2008, it was the name that personally attracted Dilys and myself into wanting to see this beetle. I mean, anything with 'death' in the name, sounds like you should want to see it, or at least go looking for it, as far as I'm concerned.

It's also a beetle with a real story behind the name, a beetle which is part of local folklore in parts of the country. But the story of the Death-watch Beetle's name is a good one, one that conjures up scenes of darkened, candle-lit, wood-panelled rooms, with someone lying on their death bed about to waltz off towards some bright light.

It's not often that any insects make a noise, aside from the obvious buzzing of wings of course. But the male Death Watch Beetle has the ability to make an audible clicking sound. This is thought to be in order to attract females, but I'm not entirely convinced. Unless males hold a territory, it's usually the female that does the attracting through the release of pheremones.

It's this clicking noise though, coupled with some untimely attempts at attracting a female on the male's part, from which the Death Watch Beetle derives its common name.

Over the past centuries, household furniture was made from wood, hand made and often from Oak. Occasionally (sometimes after several years) a chest of drawers, a chair, or a bed frame etc, could produce a newly emerged male Death Watch Beetle. The beetle's emergence would pass unnoticed, at least until after dark, when a clicking noise would likely be heard. At some time, this event would also coincide with the event of someone's dying and unltimate death, and so while the relatives were gathered around the 'soon to be' departing, a clicking sound would be heard, which sounded like the ticking of a clock - a clock ticking down the time till death. Hence the beetle earned it's name.

Where and when

While encounters with the adult have never been that common personally, the signs of their presence throughout the Sherwood Forest area are everywhere, with the barkless trunks of most of the forest's ancient Oaks, studded by exit holes made by the beetle over many generations. Obviously, the 3-4mm exit holes of Xestobium, can be recorded year round, which is a great way to record the beetle at a site. 

They are often best looked for in very dry, soft dead wood, the kind which can be pulled off very easily, even when the tree is still alive. This was the very habitat in which Dilys and I eventually found our first ever adults back in April 2015.

But over a number of years spent recording Sherwood's invertebrates, we only ever saw the beetle on eight occasions, several of which involved beetles being found underneath loose bark on dead trees. All our records came in the Spring, between 14th April (2020) and 30th May (2016).

Two of our records came after dark, when the beetle is active and perhaps likely to be encountered on areas of exposed dry, dead wood.

Most of the records from VC56 (Nottinghamshire), are largely restricted to ancient woodland. In Nottinghamshire, this refers to the Sherwood Forest area of course, but there are odd, mostly historical) records from other sites, including one from Barrow Hills, which is a woodland in the very north of Nottinghamshire.