Lundy Island is a small island best known for its surprisingly turbulent history, being a popular day trip and Brittan’s first Marine Conservation Zone, but to Ms Laura Larkin and her team at Buglife it is a battleground for the Lundy Cabbage Flea Beetle’s (Psylliodes luridipennis) survival. 

The Lundy Cabbage Flea Beetle is an endemic beetle to Lundy Island and Wholey dependent on the Lundy cabbage that grows on a 2.5km stretch of south-east Lundy. The adults eat the leaves of this vulnerable plant, then deposit their eggs into the soil at the base of the plant, where the larvae then feed on the roots. 

The limited range paired with grazing pressure, inappropriate land management and the encroaching of the invasive Rhododendron ponticum have pushed the beetle’s numbers into sharp decline and though a flea beetle may not be a fan favorite of the avid gardener, in Lundy they are a welcome sight. 

To save this unique endemic species, Buglife has been studying the Lundy Cabbage Flea Beetle’s abundance and distribution to develop a monitoring system. Additionally, they’ve been working with locals to restore the beetle’s lost habitat. The team hopes that making changes will let us see their numbers in abundance once again.