Bavon Beach series: The Northeastern Beach Tiger Beetle

Partnering to Conserve Virginia's Coast

Bavon Beach series: The Northeastern Beach Tiger Beetle

Mike Drummond
And the northeastern beach tiger beetle is listed, uh, mainly because of, uh, low numbers lost through the Atlantic seaboard area.

MIKE DRUMMOND

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Mike Drummond
Um, its range is from Massachusetts to Virginia.

Mike Drummond
Uh, currently it's only found in two populations in Massachusetts, uh, and majority of its, uh, existing populations are here in Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay.

Northeastern Beach Tiger Beetle
(Cicindela dorsalis dorsalis)
Maryland & Virginia Distribution

████ Occupied Shoreline

Calvert County

Saint Mary's County

Somerset County

MARYLAND

VIRGINIA

Northumberland County

Accomack County

Lancaster County

Middlesex County

Matthews County

Northampton County

CHESAPEAKE BAY

Bavon Beach

Poquoson City

Mike Drummond
So this site, it is very significant to us, um, and it also lies adjacent to the uh, the uh, Newpoint Comfort, uh, Preserve Area, which is state property, and that's another important beetle population to us.

Mike Drummond
The northeastern beach tiger beetle's only as an adult out basically from about mid-June to, uh, into August.

Mike Drummond
Um, it lives primarily—its- most of its life as a larval stage in the inner tidal zone.

Mike Drummond
Uh, its exists there from two to three years, uh, hence the reason why it's prone to, uh, severe loss due to any type of storm events or things like that.

Mike Drummond
The adult's kind of a sandish color, uh, it has some markings on its back, uh, it's pretty well set-up to blend in with the sand environment it's on.

Mike Drummond
The adults are probably no more than about an inch in length.

Mike Drummond
One of the things we're looking at here is it, we can't stem the increasing levels here in the Chesapeake Bay, which is basically increasing higher than even the Atlantic Ocean is.

Mike Drummond
So, we've gotta slow down the erosion rates, give the beetle a chance to, uh, adjust and move to new habitats that will be created over time as others basically disappear.

Learn more about this beetle at

www.fws.gov/northeast/endangered/tiger_beetle.