Northern Dune Tiger Beetle (Cicindela hybrida)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - beetle (Coleoptera) > Ground beetle |
| Red List Status: | Vulnerable (Not Relevant) [VU(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Cicindela hybrida |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | Linnaeus, 1758 |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Telfer, 2016 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Only on coasts of Lancashire and South Cumbria, concentrated at two main sites which require protection and sympathetic habitat management. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Restricted to two distinct populations along the Sefton Coast between Liverpool and Southport and at Drigg Dunes in Cumbria. These sites need protection from development, habitat management appropriate to the species, including maintenance of patches of bare ground, and mitigation of recreational pressure. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Maintenance of early succession open sandy dunes and grassland will benefit this species. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 5. Remedial action identified |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Medium-high |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Structured - sufficient |
| Species Comments: | Can be abundant where present so should respond well to appropriate management at the core sites. Not known elsewhere in England, Dorset record is remote from other locations and unlikely to be correct, though C. hybrida does occur in Normandy and is abundant in the Netherlands. Appropriate monitoring is in place following Back from the Brink as per 2019 project review, this should be confirmed. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Manage sites to maintain large areas of bare sand with sparse vegetation, with balance of disturbance to maintain open areas while minimising damage to larval habitat.
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: Sefton Coast, Drigg Dunes
Comments: Action may already be taking place through Back from the Brink project
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Feasibility into translocations to new sites
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Dependent on outcomes of Action 2, trial translocation of this species to new suitable sites
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.