Known as Hypocoelus procerulus in the past but H. procerulus is now used for a different species.

Global and European regional assessment: Least Concern (LC)
EU27 regional assessment: Least Concern (LC)

Hylis foveicollis is a European endemic species that is widely distributed in the western half of the continent, it is not present in most of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. The species is fairly common in at least parts of its range, with a stable population trend and no major threat to the population or habitat, and is assessed as Least Concern.

Hylis foveicollis is a European endemic species that is widespread across much of Europe, with the exception of some Balkan countries, the British Isles and Ireland, most of the Iberian Peninsula, and northern Fennoscandia (Muona 2007, Kovalev 2014).

It is possibly extant in Belarus and Lithuania considering the nearby locality in south-eastern Latvia. In Finland it occurs only in the southern part of the country. It occurs all across France except for the northwest (B. Dodelin pers. comm. 2024). In Germany it inhabits the whole territory with more than a hundred records, present in all federal states including Rügen Island (e.g. Knapp and Grunewald 2018). It is widespread and not uncommon across whole Switzerland (Y. Chittaro, pers. comm.). In Italy it is restricted to the north. In Latvia, the known records are scattered over the whole country area. Surprisingly, only one (historical) observation of a single female exists from European Russia without locality information (Palm 1955: 'Russland ohne nähere Fundortsangabe' [Russia without further locality information]); for an unstated reason, in the Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera Muona (2007) interpreted the distribution of H. foveicollis in European Russia as 'CT NT' referring to the central and northern parts of the area. There are no reliable records known for Hylis foveicollis from the European Russia (A. Kovalev pers. comm. 2024). The species has recently been discovered in one Pyrenean locality in Spain (Recalde Irurzun 2008). In Ukraine, it occurs in the Carpathians only (Drogvaleno pers. comm. 2009).

The European and EU27 extent of occurrence (EOO) and area of occupancy (AOO) are large, both exceeding the thresholds for threatened species, and the species is still under-recorded.

It is widespread and relatively common in at least parts of its range. Population trend is presumed to be stable.

In Czechia it occurs in many faunistic grid cells across the country (Dušánek and Mertlik 2009). In Denmark it is rare and local; only on Zealand and Lolland (National Environmental Research Institute 2007). In Finland it is a rare species but with a stable trend. In Hungary the species is very sporadic in the hilly and mountainous regions; all known subpopulations are very small (O. Merkl pers. comm. 2009). In Germany and Switzerland the population trends appears to be increasing in the last decade. In Latvia it is not abundant, but is distributed in suitable habitats across the whole country except for the southwest. In Slovakia it occurs in many faunistic grid cells, particularly in the central part, but not in the south (Dušánek and Mertlik 2009). In Spain, there is only one locality, recently discovered (Recalde Irurzun 2008). In Ukraine this species is rare (Drogvalenko pers. comm. 2009).

This is an obligate saproxylic species. Larvae usually develops inside heartwood decay within intact trunks of various deciduous and coniferous trees. It has been reared from dead, fallen or standing branches and trunks of Euonymus europea in a moist shaded location, wood on surface solid, inside partly rotten. It has also been reared from a fallen branch of Fagus sylvatica (Beech), partly without bark, half embedded in leaf litter, with fairly solid wood on surface, inside with brown rot. It is also reported from Abies, Alnus, Betula, Carpinus, Fraxinus, Fagus, Picea, Populus tremula, Quercus and Ulmus; larvae lived in the border of solid and soft wood in inner parts of trunk (Muona 1993).

In Hungary habitats of the known subpopulations are mature forests (oak and beech). It is found in broad-leaved and coniferous woodlands (O. Merkl pers. comm. 2009). In Hungary larvae in wood of Fagus sylvatica, Carpinus betulus, Quercus spp., Euonymus spp., Abies alba and Picea abies (Freude et al. 1979), where there is moist red-rotted heartwood but intact, undecayed sapwood. In Latvia it occurs in old forest stands in shady conditions, including EU habitat of importance (9180* Tilio-Acerion forests of slopes, screes and ravines). In Ukraine, beetles are found in loose wood mostly of broad-leaved trees, often Aspen.

The European and EU27 habitat is diverse, large and not immediately threatened. Some of the habitat types of Hylis foveicollis are considered threatened in the EU27.

The species appears to be under no significant threat to this species at the European or EU27 level, although Hylis foveicollis is rare and localised in some countries and abundant and widespread in others. The decaying stems do not need to be particularly large. The main reasons that have led to the decline of numerous saproxylic beetle populations are the reduction in the area of their habitats, fragmentation and the loss of connectivity between habitats, along with the decline of deadwood in forests, wooded pastures and cultural landscape in terms of both quantity and quality and, in particular, the absence of large-diameter deadwood in managed forests.

It is used for scientific research and monitoring.

The species occurs in numerous protected areas across the range (e.g. France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Poland). This species is listed as Endangered in Czechia (Hejda et al. 2017) and Finland, and Near Threatened in Italy.