Beetle rediscovered in Devon - 60 years after being declared extinct

An endangered species of beetle that has not been seen in Britain for nearly 60 years has been found alive and well at a remote grassland site on the south coast.

A remnant population of the short-necked oil beetle has apparently survived undisturbed and undetected at the site in south Devon since 1948.

Bob Heckford, an amateur entomologist looking for small moths and butterflies, stumbled across the beetle during a wildlife survey of a coastal strip of land owned by the National Trust. "To find something so large and distinctive that hasn't been seen for so long is rather unusual," said Peter Brash, an invertebrate ecologist at the trust.

About 40 individuals have since been identified on grassland between Bolt Head and Bolt Tail in Devon. The last time there was a confirmed sighting was at Chailey Common in East Sussex 59 years ago.

The natural habitats of the short-necked oil beetle, Meloe brevicollis, have been affected by the spread of intensive agriculture since the Second World War. However, the site in Devon is on a steep slope down to the sea, so it has avoided the sort of agricultural intensification affecting neighbouring land.

This has allowed the beetle to complete its complicated life-cycle, which involves a period of parasitism inside a bee's nest during the beetle's larval stage.

"The discovery of a beetle that was thought to be extinct for nearly 60 years is an amazing story of survival, particularly for a species with such an interdependent lifecycle," said David Bullock, the head of nature conservation at the trust.

"It's likely that this population of the short-necked oil beetle has survived because they inhabit an area of land that has avoided the intensive farming methods of surrounding arable land," Mr Bullock said. "It's great that this oil beetle, with its fascinating lifestyle, has survived against all the odds and is back in business on the south Devon coast," he said.

Adult oil beetles live for about three months and are slow-moving and flightless. Their main defence is to exude a toxic oily secretion when they feel threatened.

Females lay up to 1,000 eggs in a burrow they dig in soft or sandy soil. When the young hatch in spring, they climb up vegetation and lie in wait on flowers for a passing mining bee to take the young beetle back to the bee's nest, where the beetle changes into a maggot-like larva that devours the bee's egg and stores of pollen.

The National Trust is working with the tenant farmer who holds the land to make sure that it is managed in a way that helps the beetles and the bees to flourish.

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