Lebia cruxminor
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - beetle (Coleoptera) > Ground beetle |
| Red List Status: | Endangered (Not Relevant) [EN(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: | Lebia cruxminor |
| 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: | Never common in England, only records post 2000 are from Fontmell Down, Dorset in 2009, Cerne Abbas, Dorset in 2015 and 2021 and Calstone Down in North Wiltshire also in 2021. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Although L. cruxminor has never been common in England and may benefit from general management of chalk grassland habitat, its recent presence at three sites managed by the National Trust offer an opportunity for more targeted monitoring to unpick this species autecology. It should be noted however that this species is never abundant and even intensive site surveys may result in very few individuals being located. |
| 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: | Untargeted habitat management that maintains areas of chalk grassland or rush pasture with populations of the likely host species (Galeruca tanaceti) may benefit this species. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 2. Biological status assessment exists |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Relict or natural rarity |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Associated with dry chalk grassland, fen meadow or purple moor grass rush pasture. A parasite of the leaf beetle Galerauca tanaceti which is associated with a number of host plants including Devil's Bit Scabious. This is also the foodplant of Marsh Fritillary Euphydryas aurinia, so it is possible that conservation work for Marsh Fritilliary will favour Lebia cruxminor. Marsh Fritillary is present at all three of the recent sites for L. cruxminor which are all chalk grasslands managed by The National Trust. Never found in numbers, which presents a challenge for monitoring, but populations of the host species Galeruca tanaceti could be monitored on sites with recent records of L. cruxminor. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Finescale survey for the host species Galeruca tanaceti on sites with records this century of L. cruxminor. Surveys may also yield records of L. cruxminor, in its absence could determine in what conditions the host beetle is common on sites that should be suitable for L. cruxminor. Records in Northern Ireland suggest an association with Devil's Bit Scabious Succisa pratensis (Telfer 2016), so this host of G. tanaceti would be a good starting point for targeted surveys.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: Fontmell Down, Cerne Abbas Giant, Calstone and Cherhill Downs
Comments: All three sites are chalk grasslands managed by the National Trust
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.