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 record, 15.6.2013, Eccleston Mere
2014 – 3 records from two sites. 2 individuals at Stanley Bank Meadow SSSI on 2.7.2014 and 16.7.2014, 1 at Eccleston Mere on 12.7.2014.
Following the discovery of the species at Stanley Bank Meadows national expert Dr Martin Rejzek was contacted for management advice;
As for management issues this is really an important aspect. The beetle larva tunnels in the stalks of the plant for all of its immature life. In contrast to phytoecia, A. villosoviridescens never enters the root. The pupation occurs in a stub created after girdling off the upper part of the stalk and the adult emerges from a lateral hole. The stub is about 5 to 20 cm high but this is only created very late (September) in the first year of the development. Before September the larvae can be found anywhere in the upper parts of the plant. Easily a meter above ground for example. So, if you cut the plant to a height of 8 cm in July – August you effectively destroy the insect. This is why these insects usually only survive on woodland edges or along paths where the vegetation is not cut.
For your site [Stanley Bank Meadow SSSI] I think the best way forward would be to reserve a small part with enough of infested plants and leave it uncut. It can probably be cut in the next spring but to a height of 20 – 30 cm, not lower – Dr Martin Rejzek
The full species action can be found via the following download:
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.
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.
North Merseyside Biodiversity Action Plan
Northern Dune Tiger Beetle Cicindela hybrida
1. Current Status
1.1 National
1.1.1 Modern and historic British records for this conspicuous and photogenic insect are restricted to coastal sand dunes in North West England. It is no longer found at Wallasey (Merseyside), Carnforth (Lancashire), Walney Island and (probably) Eskmeals (Cumbria). Current records are within four, ten kilometre National Grid squares, and are from Drigg (Cumbria) and a 15-kilometre stretch of the Sefton Coast (Merseyside), This species is found throughout Europe, except the extreme north, and is not restricted to the coast. British populations are isolated and at the extreme north-west of the species’ range.
1.1.2 Northern Dune Tiger Beetle is confined to bare sandy areas between the fore and mobile, Marram Ammophila arenaria covered dunes, close to the shore, and to partly re-vegetated ‘blow-outs’ and eroded areas inland, on fixed dunes. It is more peripheral in its distribution at Drigg, and only occurs in bare sandy areas amongst Marram and sedge on the edge of the sea and river estuaries.
1.1.3 In Great Britain this species is now classified as Vulnerable and is a priority species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP).
1.2 Local
1.2.1 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.
1.2.2 Most records are from mobile fore dunes. However, the species also occurs along sandy tracks and on fixed dunes, particularly at Ainsdale NNR and Formby, in ‘blow-outs’ and wherever there is extensive open sand. There are even records from sandy clearings in the pine plantations.
