Lundy Beetle List

The total number of beetles recorded in the UK is 4,072 in 103 families.  Lundy currently has 423 species recorded in 37 families. That is 10% of the UK list but 35% of the families.

The first beetle record was by MJ Delany in 1951, but the heyday of beetle discovery and recording on Lundy was in the 1960s when DR RC Welch established the baseline for future surveys with 169 species.  From 1982 to 1998, Tony Parsons commenced his invertebrate surveys further increasing the species list by 74. Drs Roger and Rosy Key and Steve Compton, when they began their Lundy Cabbage Count in 1993, began the long process of finding, identifying and recording what they could find to add 55 species.  In 1997 Dr MA Salmon FRES spent a short while on the island and added 33 more and his records were supplement by JA Owen with a further 29. Jenny George and her colleagues together with Claburn and Long have provided 21 freshwater species for the list.

A brief visit by Mark Telfer in 2011 added three new species, the LFS grant-aided visit by Linda Losito and Bob Cowley in 2017, although only a few days, added a further ten to the total tally. Since 2018 the Lundy Warden has added a two more records which shows that new species are there to be found.

The graph shows the progression through the years of how this process continues to find new species and record them.

It is interesting to note the absence of Black Oil Beetles (Meloe proscarabaeus.) before 2012 and Bloody-nosed Beetles (Timarcha tenebricosa) before 2010 .  These are large, distinctive beetles which cannot have been missed by such eminent coleopterists so would appear to be recent colonists to Lundy

In the listing below the following convention is adopted regarding abundance:

A total of 424 species (or forms) are listed here.

List alphabetically by common nameList alphabetically by scientific name