Woodland dor beetle
Unlike its dung beetle relatives, the woodland dor beetle feeds mainly on leaf litter and fungi in the forest floor rather than on dung.
| Where | Damp deciduous and mixed woodland |
|---|---|
| Size | 12 to 19 mm long |
| When | April to October |
It is a compact, rounded black beetle with a metallic blue sheen, most obvious on the underside, and elytra marked with shallow, criss-crossed ridges.
It lives in damp deciduous and mixed woodland, where both adults and larvae feed on decaying plant material and fungi in the leaf litter.
Traits
Habitat
Woodland
Colour
Black, Metallic
Active
Day
To people
Harmless.
Activity through the year
Often confused with
Common dor beetle lacks the strong blue sheen and has more evenly spaced, coarser ridges on the elytra than the woodland dor beetle.
Questions
Is the Woodland dor beetle dangerous to people?
The Woodland dor beetle is harmless to people.
When can you see the Woodland dor beetle?
The Woodland dor beetle can be seen from April to October, by day.
Plate retouched from a photo by Amada44, CC BY‑SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons Licence
The plate on this page is shared under the same licence as its source, CC BY-SA.
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Beetles›Dor beetles›Anoplotrupes
Last updated 2026-09-26. Every entry is checked against published sources.