Jncc coastal Directories Project Region 11 The Western Approaches

5.3  Land and freshwater invertebrates
93
Table 5.3.2  
Coastal Red Data Book (RDB) species in region (continued)
Species
Description and notes on recorded occurrence in the region
pRDB3 (continued)
Pamponerus germanicus
Robber fly frequenting sand dunes just behind the marram belt.  Larvae possibly develop in moist sand as
predators of other invertebrates.  On the major sand dunes of western Britain from north Devon to the north-
east coast of Scotland.  Occasionally reported inland.  Braunton Burrows, pre-967; Kenfig Burrows & Pool, 1992;
Merthyr Mawr Warren, 1990.
Pherbellia knutsoni
Widely recorded but very local snail-killing fly of southern Britain.  Many records are from dry sand dunes,
breck heath or chalk grassland.  Kenfig Burrows & Pool, 1992.
Poecilobothrus ducalis
*Small dancefly, larvae probably semi-aquatic carnivores in mud beside saline pools and ditches.  All modern
records are from north Kent marshes, though old records also from Hants. and Somerset.  Berrow Dunes, 1951.
Pogonus luridipennis
*6-8.5 mm metallic green and yellow ground beetle found in saltmarshes under seaweed and driftwood.  S. and
E. England north to Humber.  Very local.  Severn Beach, 1943.
Thereva fulva
Active light brown hairy fly associated with dunes and other sandy areas near the coast, apparently preferring
areas of fixed sand with well established vegetation and small open areas.  Most records are from north Kent
and S. Wales; appears to have declined greatly this century.  Merthyr Mawr Warren, 1992.
RDB I
Scopaeus ryei
2.5 mm orange rove beetle living among shingle and gravel on the foreshore.  Known only from a small
number of localities in Cornwall and Devon.  Helston, pre-1970; Loe Pool SSSI, 1936; Penrose Estate, 1970.
RDB K
Atomaria scutellaris
*Small beetle found in a range of habitats usually near the coast.  Tresco, 1965.
Lithobius lapidicola
Centipede only recently recorded in the wild in Britain from Sandwich Bay, Kent.  Often confused with L.
borealis.  Countybridge Quarry Heath, near Mullion, 1977; the Lizard, 1980-1981.
Metatrichoniscoides
Small woodlouse found under boulders embedded in turf.  Discovered new to science in 1979 on the
celticus
Glamorganshire coast; now also known from a limestone quarry in Carmarthenshire, St. Bees beach, Cumbria,
and the Giant’s Causeway, Co. Antrim.  Cliffs at St. Donat’s post-1970; Nash Point, 1979; Ogmore Flats, 1979;
Ogmore-by-Sea Cliffs, 1979; Southerndown Coast SSSI, 1979; St. Donat’s Bay to Col-huw Point, 1979.
pRDB K
Actocharis readingi
1.5-1.7 mm yellow rove beetle living among stones and dead seaweed below the high water mark.  South-West
Peninsula only.  Rockham Bay, Mortehoe, 1907; St. Mary’s, 1970.
Bledius diota
Small rove beetle which feeds on seaweed.  Builds burrows in coastal sand or the banks of saltmarsh creeks,
leaving small piles of soil similar to wormcasts.  Local in England; also known from Scotland but probably
rarer in the north of its range.  Berrow Dunes, 1978.
Halticus macrocephalus
*Bug known only from sand dunes in a small area of north Cornwall, where it feeds on lady’s bedstraw Galium
verum.  Rock, near Padstow, 1957; Porth Kidney Sands, 1968.
Omalium rugulipenne
Rove beetle recorded from under dead seaweed.  Local in England. Berrow Dunes, 1981.
Phytosus nigriventris
*2-2.8 mm black rove beetle with yellow legs; associated with coastal habitats.  St. Martin’s, pre-1970.
Source: JNCC (after Kirby 1994a, b).  Key: Red Data Book categories: RDB1 = endangered; RDB2 = vulnerable; RDB3 = rare; RDB I =
indeterminate; RDB K = insufficiently known; pRDB = proposed species as categorised in e.g. Hyman & Parsons (1992); pRDB K = proposed
species as categorised in e.g. Hyman & Parsons (1994); *= old records in the region (before approx. 1970).  For further description of RDB
categories, see Shirt (1987) and Bratton (1991).
The JNCC’s Invertebrate Site Register (ISR) has records
from 590 sites within the region, from the Fal Estuary in
Cornwall to Kenfig Dunes in Mid Glamorgan, although
many of these are subsites of much larger statutory nature
conservation areas.  Scarce and threatened species have been
recorded at many ISR sites.  
Table 5.3.3
lists those sites
known to be of major importance for the conservation of
invertebrates.  Site selection was based on the range and/or
scarcity of species present, the species habitat associations
and the amount of available habitat.  Many of these sites are
National Nature Reserves (NNRs) or Sites of Special
Scientific Interest (SSSIs); other under-recorded localities in
the region may warrant similar status on the basis of their
invertebrate interest.
Most of the scarce or threatened species occurring in the
region have exacting habitat requirements in one or more
stages of their life histories.  They are often restricted in
range and in some cases are known from only a few
localities.  Assemblages of species associated with rocky
cliffs, coastal heaths and grasslands, foreshores, sand dunes
or coastal woodlands are particularly well represented in
this region.  
Rocky cliffs and their associated coastal heaths and
grasslands are of outstanding importance in this region,
with large numbers of scarce or threatened species recorded.
Many of these are thermophilous species depending on
warm, bare or sparsely vegetated ground.  One such
example, the bug Pterometus staphyliniformis, is exclusive to
thinly vegetated cliff-top habitat, occurring in the region in
one area of Cornwall.  Other scarce insects have specific
associations with threatened plants; for example larvae of
the micro-moths Phyllonorycter staintonella and Syncopacma
sueciciella feed only on hairy greenweed Genista pilosa and
the beetle Psylliodes luridipennis is exclusive to Lundy
cabbage Coincya wrightii (see also 
section 5.2
).  Scarce
herbivorous invertebrates feeding on more widespread
plants within the region are perhaps restricted in
distribution by climatic factors.  Seepages and small trickles
on cliffs are the habitat of scarce species such as the cranefly
Limonia goritiensis and the water beetle Ochthebius poweri.

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