Rare beetle count disappoints

LINCOLN (AP) — More Salt Creek tiger beetles were found during this year’s count on the north side of Lincoln, but experts say that’s not good enough news for the endangered bug.

Researchers said they found 165 adult beetles last year, so the 194 found in June was an improvement.

Nonetheless, “for an insect, that’s ridiculous,” said Steve Spomer, an entomologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Spomer said the researchers counting the insects, among the rarest insects in the U.S., should be finding 300 or 400 adults annually.

“I thought we were going to have a pretty good population last year, but we had two pretty good floods out there which washed a lot of larvae away,” Spomer said.

Bob Harms, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, also was disappointed. He said this summer’s higher tally of tiger beetles did not mean recovery was at hand.

“I recognize that there is a slight increase from last year, but it’s dreadfully low. When you think of insects you’re thinking tens of thousands. That’s a healthy population. When you’re talking 194, it’s very, very low,” Harms said.

The half-inch-long Salt Creek tiger beetle was listed as endangered in October 2005. It is metallic brown to dark-olive green and lives in rare saline wetlands found north of Lincoln and in adjacent Saunders County, south of Ceresco. Researchers describe it as a predator that feeds on smaller insects.

Loss of saline wetland and stream habitats and changes in hydrology are blamed for the decline of the species.

The counters looked everywhere they’ve found the beetles in the past, even though the site south of Ceresco, at the Jack Sinn Wildlife Management Area, hasn’t yielded any for several years.

“We even walked along Rock Creek, where there’s good habitat,” Spomer said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that nearly 2,000 acres are critical to the beetle’s survival. A decision on which habitat areas will be labeled as critical isn’t expected until late this year, if then.

Spomer said there was some encouraging news. Researchers found signs that the tiger beetle has moved into Shoemaker Marsh, which is managed by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

Also, he said, some graduate students have 14 adults from eggs in a laboratory.

The bugs have started to lay eggs, Spomer said. “There’s some hope of keeping a colony in the lab.”

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