Following the discovery of the Golden-bloomed Grey Longhorn Beetle Agapanthia villosoviridescens in St Helens, a plan has been produced to provdide guidance for sensitive management of this previously unknown beetle. The life-cycle of this species is particularly sensitive to management techniques. Especially low cutting of it’s host plants during larval development. Records 2013 – 1… Read More »
This species is found mainly in moist meadows and hedgerows where adults feed mainly on umbellifers such as Heracleum sphondylium (Hogweed) and Anthriscus sylvestris (Cow Parsley). It is also found on nettles and thistles.
Their flight time is May to August but numbers peak in May and June. It is a stem boring species who’s larvae develop in the stalks of the host plant, working their way down while growing, eventually cutting off the stalk and creating pupal cells near to ground level. Adults emerge through a newly cut exit hole in the side of the stalk.
It is a large a very distinctive longhorn beetle, reaching a length of 10-22 millimetres. It has a golden, iridescent bloom on the elytra and thorax and the antennae are also very distinctive having dark and light bands.
Northern Dune Tiger Beetle is extensively found along a 15 kilometre stretch of the Sefton Coast which is estimated to support up to 75% of the species’ British population. It was recorded from 105, separate 100 metre squares, on the Sefton Coast during a 1999 – 2003 survey. The species is almost continuously recorded between Birkdale in the north and Hightown in the south. The most southerly record for the species is from Hall Road Crosby.