Nebria livida
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: | Nebria livida |
| 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: | A habitat specialist confined almost exclusively to eroding soft-rock cliffs on the Norfolk and Yorkshire coast. The only inland site with records from the modern period is Gransmoor Quarry, an active sand and gravel works in south east Yorkshire. N. livida has declined from 14 hectads to 8 hectads in the modern period, primarily as a result of cliff stabilisation works and the installation of hard defences, although the species may also be vulnerable at sites with excessive coastal erosion. Many known sites in Norfolk and Yorkshire were revisited during the course of a suite of survey work targeting soft rock cliff invertebrates in 2006. In Yorkshire a number of additional potentially suitable looking sites were investigated between Scarborough and Flamborough Head without success and there have been no records from coastal sites north of The Wash since 1985. The only sites which would benefit from resurvey are Gransmoor Quarry which is private and presumably inaccessible and Hunt and Boulby Cliffs in north east Yorkshire, where the species was last seen in 1984. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | A habitat specialist confined almost exclusively to eroding soft-rock cliffs on the Norfolk and Yorkshire coast. The only inland site with records from the modern period is Gransmoor Quarry, an active sand and gravel works in south east Yorkshire. N. livida has declined from 14 hectads to 8 hectads in the modern period, primarily as a result of cliff stabilisation works and the installation of hard defences, although the species may also be vulnerable at sites with excessive coastal erosion. Many known sites in Norfolk and Yorkshire were revisited during the course of a suite of survey work targeting soft rock cliff invertebrates in 2006. In Yorkshire a number of additional potentially suitable looking sites were investigated between Scarborough and Flamborough Head without success and there have been no records from coastal sites north of The Wash since 1985. The only sites which would benefit from resurvey are Gransmoor Quarry which is private and presumably inaccessible and Hunt and Boulby Cliffs in north east Yorkshire, where the species was last seen in 1984. |
| 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: | No |
| Justification: | This species would not benefit from untargeted management |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 4. Autecology and pressures understood |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Relict or natural rarity |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Found on eroding coastal soft-rock cliffs, particularly in the vicinity of freshwater seepages. This species typically hides deeply within cracks and crevices in the clay cliff-face during the day and may be found by splitting blocks of clay away from the cliff. By night, the beetles may be seen foraging out in the open on bare ground, often where freshwater seepages fan across the upper beach rather than on the cliff-face itself. Nocturnal surveys in Norfolk found N. livida in spots that were entirely bare of vegetation, had fairly clean surfaces, had fairly uniform clayish substrates with cracks and crevices, and few stones or flints, and were often damp, sometimes but not always actually wet. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Assess Hunt and Boulby Cliffs for suitable habitat, followed by targeted survey work if deemed practical. Note that point that survey work for this species is ideally conducted at night and is a hazardous undertaking which should only be undertaken following suitable safety precautions.
Action targets: 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: 1 site
High priority sites: Hunt and Boulby cliffs
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Analysis of threats at occupied locations, to understand viability of populations, in relation to climate change and coastal zone management.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: 1 site
High priority sites: Known North Norfolk locations
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.