Dune Snail-killing Fly (Salticella fasciata)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - true fly (Diptera) > Fly |
| Red List Status: | (Not Relevant) [(not listed)(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Salticella fasciata |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Meigen, 1830) |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | (not listed) |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Populations appear to be in three main areas, widely spread within England. Loe Bar in Cornwall, Holme-next-the-Sea in Norfolk and Gibralter Point in N.Lincolnshire. The records are thinly spread from 2005 to 2020. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Associated with lightly grazed grassland and dunes, one of the sites Holme NWT in Norfolk is protected, but beaches are still accessible to the general public. |
| 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: | The two Eastern sites are open to the North Sea so any large scale actions would be difficult to implement and the sites are at risk from high tides and storms. The Cornish site is a sand bar that is isolated from other beaches so any form of external untargeted management would have little effect. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 4. Autecology and pressures understood |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Life history factor/s |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | The fly lays eggs on the shells of terrestrial snails, 10mm or more in diameter, the larvae feed within the shells but leave to pupate just below the surface in damp sand. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Surveying of previously occupied sites and adjacent areas of coastline to establish if populations still exist or have expanded before further targeted actions can be assessed
Action targets: 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: Loe Bar Cornwall, (SW643242), Holme-next-the-Sea, Norfolk (TF696442, TF69554420), Gibralter Point. N. Lincoln (TF561575)
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Surveying of likely areas around the coast especially eastern and southern England.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Habitat creation
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites: Coastal sites in Eastern and southern England with dunes or ungrazed/lightly grazed grassland.
Comments: Utilise Dipterist's Forum and local Naturalists Societies in Coastal areas. Design spec for coastal retreat at these areas include creation of suitable habitat for the fly and snails to move into, thus creating fallback habitat.
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Active management of public access to inhabited sites or parts of the sites that are most at risk from trampling or recreational activities.
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Pressure mitigation
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: Loe Bar Cornwall, (SW643242), Holme-next-the-Sea, Norfolk (TF696442, TF69554420), Gibralter Point. N. Lincoln (TF561575)
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.