Rare Short-Necked Oil Beetle Found Breeding Again at Its Only Welsh Site
After two years of finding only dead adults, surveyors have spotted larvae at Castlemartin Range in Pembrokeshire.
Conservationists have found evidence that the rare short-necked oil beetle (*Meloe brevicollis*) is still breeding at Castlemartin Range in Pembrokeshire, the only place it is known in Wales. Surveyors found beetle larvae this year after a three-year search, Nation Cymru reported on October 29.
Why it was a worry
Surveys in 2022 and 2025 turned up only dead adult beetles, raising fears for the species' future on the site. This year's team found larvae across a small area. Their numbers and the time of year suggest they were hatchlings from a larger batch.
"Very exciting to find this species and evidence of its breeding again." — Anna Hobbs, Bumblebee Conservation Trust
A beetle that depends on bees
The beetle's life cycle is unusual:
- Larvae climb onto flowers and hitch a ride on visiting solitary bees back to their nests
- There they feed on the pollen the bees have collected
- Adults need bare earth for egg-laying, thick vegetation for shelter and plenty of flowers
Only a handful of suitable sites remain in the UK.
What's next
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust surveyed the site as part of the Shrill Carder Bee project, funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and part of Natur am Byth, Wales' flagship species recovery programme. Hobbs said this was the project's last survey for the beetle, and thanked partners and volunteers for persevering through two years without larval sightings. Continued site management is expected to keep the habitat suitable. One site is still a precarious foothold, so the species remains vulnerable.
