Cylindroiulus punctatus

169. Cylindroiulus punctatus (Leach, 1815)

Julus punctatus Leach, 1815.

Iulus silvarum Meinert, 1868.

Cylindroiulus silvarum auct.

AT, BE, CH, CZ, DE, DK-DEN, ES-BAL, ES-SPA, FI, FR-FRA, GB-CI, GB-GRB, GB-NI, IE, LU, NL, NO-NOR, PL, SE. Extended Atlantic. – Also introduced into the Nearctic region (Newfoundland).

Woodland of all sorts, most frequently in dead and decaying wood and under the bark of dead trees and branches. However, it migrates vertically and is found in leaf litter especially from autumn to spring and in the soil when it is cold. It is hygrophile and accumulates in rather deep decomposing litter and the underlying humus on silty soils in particular (Kime & Wauthy 1984) and extends into sandy heathlands (Blower 1985). It is found in hedges, arable land, parks, gardens and other places, generally associated with wood, yet is more rural than synanthropic.

It is a thermophile lowland species, although it occurs up to over 1000 m at its southern limit in the Mediterranean woodlands of Catalonia. Schubart (1934) associated it with various ants’ nests.

Many studies of this species have been made, e.g., Barlow (1957), Breny & Biernaux (1966), Banerjee (1967a, 1967b), Haacker (1968) and Geoffroy (1981a). It migrates vertically from the leaf litter or the soil in cold winters up into trees in the spring; in summer it may be found metres above the ground, descending again during the autumn. Its lowland Atlantic distribution is probably governed by the avoidance of cold winter temperatures. Wood and leaf litter are both important foods. It is a very common species, the most frequently recorded in Britain (Lee 2006) and Belgium (Kime 2004).