Length about 6 mm. A distinctively marked black beetle with orange ‘shoulder patches’ and appendages.

Associated with woodland and sometimes recorded under bark.

Summer is the time that this species is most likely to be encountered.

It is a scarce beetle with a national status of Nationally Scarce A and being most frequent in south-eastern England.

Rare in Leicestershire and Rutland it was not recorded in VC55 until 2016.