Lundy cabbage flea beetle facts for kids

The Psylliodes luridipennis, also known as the Lundy cabbage flea beetle, is a tiny beetle. It is found only on Lundy island, off the coast of England. This special beetle lives and eats only one type of plant: the Lundy cabbage (Coincya wrightii).

The Lundy cabbage flea beetle is about 3 millimeters long. That's roughly the size of a small ant! It has a shiny brassy-green head and body. Its wing covers, called elytra, are reddish-brown. Adult beetles eat the leaves of the Lundy cabbage. Their young, called larvae, dig tunnels inside the plants to feed. The beetle is at risk because the number of Lundy cabbages can change a lot. This is often due to an invasive plant called common rhododendron.

Discovery and History

The Lundy cabbage flea beetle was first found by a scientist named Thomas Vernon Wollaston. He visited Lundy island in 1844 and 1845. He collected many types of beetles, including this one. Later, in 1864, an Austrian scientist named Franz Kutschera officially described and named the species. He gave it the scientific name Psylliodes luridipennis.

Scientists believe the ancestors of this beetle could not have lived on Lundy during the ice age. This means the beetle either came to Lundy more recently, or it used to live in more places. One idea is that the ancestors of the Lundy cabbage and its beetles might have crossed to Lundy on land about 10,800 years ago. This land bridge is now gone.

What it Looks Like

Adult Lundy cabbage flea beetles are oval-shaped. They are between 2.8 and 3.6 millimeters long. They have a shiny brassy-green head and a body part called the thorax. Their wing covers, the elytra, are a shining reddish-brown. Their legs are brassy-green, but lighter at the base of their back legs (called femora). Their antennae are brick-red. These beetles have full wings and can fly.

You can tell this beetle apart from similar ones by its brassy color and smaller size. Its wing covers also have finer lines. Another beetle found on Lundy cabbage is called the "blue Lundy cabbage flea beetle." The Psylliodes luridipennis is sometimes called the "bronze Lundy cabbage flea beetle" to tell them apart.

Life and Habitat

The Psylliodes luridipennis beetles are always found on the Lundy cabbage. This plant grows only on Lundy island. The beetles eat the leaves of this plant. They do not eat other plants that grow nearby. However, scientists found that the beetles would eat other similar plants if they were brought from gardens.

The Lundy cabbage is special because it is the only plant in Britain that hosts insects found nowhere else. Besides the Lundy cabbage flea beetle, two other insects live only on this plant. These are a type of true weevil called Ceutorhynchus contractus var. pallipes and another flea beetle, Psylliodes napi.

The Lundy cabbage flea beetle lives wherever the Lundy cabbage grows. This includes steep sea cliffs and areas further inland. The beetles even found their way to new Lundy cabbages that were planted in the area within a year.

Female Lundy cabbage flea beetles lay their eggs on the stalks of the Lundy cabbage leaves. The young, white larvae are leaf miners. This means they dig tunnels inside the leaf stalks and stems to feed. After they grow, they change into pupae in the soil during late summer.

Conservation Efforts

The Lundy cabbage flea beetle is an important species. It is listed in the United Kingdom Biodiversity Action Plan. This plan helps protect species that are at risk. A special plan has been made to help save this beetle and other unique species on Lundy.

The main goal of this plan is to control the Rhododendron ponticum. This plant is an alien species (meaning it's not native to the area) and it threatens the Lundy cabbage. Since the beetle relies only on the Lundy cabbage, anything that hurts the plant also hurts the beetle.

The beetle is threatened when the number of Lundy cabbages goes up and down. Even though the beetle can quickly move to new cabbage growth after a bad year for the plant, it takes longer for the beetle's numbers to recover than the cabbage's. The Joint Nature Conservation Committee sees Psylliodes luridipennis as a "priority species" for protection. They note that while the host plant numbers have been stable since 2001, the beetle itself has been hard to find in recent years.

See also

In Spanish: Psylliodes luridipennis para niños