Animals

Cicadetta montana - New Forest Cicada

Common in the rest of Europe this Cicada is the last of its kind in the UK.

• Rarity: Now confined to the New Forest in Hampshire, with some concerns for its continued existence.
• Cause of decline: Change in habitat and weather patterns. Extreme isolation of remaining populations.
• What we plan to do: To carry out a major survey to locate any individuals. Setting up a captive breeding programme, and working with researchers to develop a phone-based sampling app.

Cicindela hybrida - Northern Dune Tiger Beetle

A striking predator beetle which only lives in sand dunes

• Rarity: now confined to three coastal sites in northern England.
• Cause of decline: Loss and decline of its dune habitat, both as a result of dune stabilisation works and changing amenity use.
• What we plan to do: Working with local partners we aim to monitor the existing populations, and carry out an assessment of the historic sites and their suitability for reintroduction.

Decticus verrucivorus - Wart-biter

A large dark green cricket with visible dark blotches on the upper body.

• Rarity: In Great Britain it is extremely localised and restricted to southern England where just five populations are now known (one of these, in Kent, has resulted from a reintroduction). Natural populations only occur in East Sussex, Dorset and Wiltshire. The name derives from the old Swedish tradition of using the crickets to bite off warts.
• Cause of decline:The animals require a complex mixture of bare ground and long and short turf – either on chalk downland or heathland. Both these habitats, and the forms of management which produce these specific conditions have declined, along with several insects that rely on them.
• What we plan to do: Ensure all native sites are being monitored, share successful management techniques amongst sites and enlarge all populations, as well as improving the chance of migration onto neighbouring sites.

Melandrya barbata - Bearded False Darkling-beetle

A saprophytic beetle, which may now be confined to the New Forest.

• Rarity: Unknown
• Cause of decline: Lack of dead wood habitat, and total loss of sites to development.
• What we plan to do: Instigate surveys of the New Forest in the first incidence, then look at all recent historic sites. Assess population dynamics and long-term viability of sites and change management if necessary.

Prostoma jenningsi - Jenning's Proboscis-worm

A slender, soft ribbon worm which grows to 2cm in length

• Rarity: Only one site left in the world, a pond in Lancashire.
• Cause of decline: Unknown, but loss and fragmentation of ponds is likely to have played a role.
• What we plan to do: Work to support local partners in surveying and management the remaining site, as well as looking at the potential of neighboring localities.

Triplax lacordairii - Southern oyster mushroom beetle

A very rare detritivorous beetle

• Rarity: A scattering of sites across southern England
• Cause of decline: Loss of suitable decaying trees.
• What we plan to do: Review of existing data; survey of known sites and other likely places to determine continued presence, status and habitat structure associations; assessment of local impact of mushroom picking; liaison with site managers to develop conservation plans.

Plants

Carex depauperata - Starved Wood-sedge

A unique sedge, both because of its rarity and the fact it has the largest fruits of any native species.

• Rarity: 2 sites in the south of England.
• Cause of decline: Loss of woodland management.
• What we are doing: Working with landowners to secure the correct management. Creating a third viable population in the wild.

Dianthus armeria - Deptford Pink

An extraordinarily vivid pink flower which grows at a range of sites in England, but feared to be one of our fastest declining species.

• Rarity: 24 sites across England an South Wales. It is feared recently extinct in Dorset and Somerset.
• Cause of decline: Lack of management at several of its sites has led to the loss of the open conditions it requires for survival. This has combined with a decrease in animals likely to spread the seeds to greatly endanger remaining populations.
• What we plan to do: Give immediate focus to recently extinct sites to try and get plants back to regenerate from seedbank in soils. Carry out urgent habitat management at sites with critically low populations, and draft management plans for all known sites. Where possible establish populations at a landscape level, linking existing and new potential sites for the species.

Gentianella campestris - Field Gentian

A small yet striking gentian, showing one of the fastest declines of any native wildflower.

• Rarity: Ten sites in southern England (three of which are on The Lizard in Cornwall, and four in Hampshire’s New Forest), as well as a handful of sites in Wales.
• Cause of decline: Their decline can roughly be associated with the decline of semi-natural grasslands, due to changes in agriculture. It cannot survive in ungrazed grassland.
• What we plan to do:. Halt its decline in Britain and to investigate possible means for the restoration of populations at sites where it may be extinct. 

Lobelia urens - Heath Lobelia

One of our few native Lobelias, a blaze of purple found in acidic bogs.

• Rarity: 6 sites across the south of England from Cornwall to Sussex.
• Cause of decline: Loss of heathlands and deterioration in the biodiversity of bog habitats.
• What we are doing: Working with landowners to secure the correct management, with focus on three of the sites with critically low population numbers.

Lycopodiella inundata- Marsh Clubmoss

This living fossil is in fact a type of fern,belonging to a strange relict family of plants which dominated the earth millions of years ago.

• Rarity: It occurs on just under 70 heathland sites across England, but at many of these exists at perilously low numbers.
• Cause of decline: Loss of heathland overall, but also a decline in the specific type of habitat, wet heathland with periodically disturbed soils, on which it relies.
• What we are doing: Monitoring populations across England, can carrying out habitat restoration work to enlarge critically small populations, a technique which has had considerable success so far.

Phyteuma spicatum - Spiked Rampion

Sometimes referred to as the Rapunzel flower, a bellflower with a host of therapeutic properties, once used by monks.

• Rarity: 8 sites, all in East Sussex.
• Cause of decline: Loss of woodland management.
• What we are doing: Working with landowners to secure the correct management and carrying out manual management at sensitive sites. Working on an ex situ conservation programme with Kew Gardens to enable bulking up at sites which have dropped below viable numbers.

Polygala amarella - Dwarf Milkwort

The rarest member of the Milkworts, a perennial which grows on chalky grassland and limestone pastures.

• Rarity:Roughly 11 sites, clustered on the Kent Downs and Lancashire fells.
• Cause of decline: Loss of traditionally grazed pastures.
• What we plan to do: Work with project partners to get sites into prime condition to support populations.