Many thanks to the James Hutton Institute who surveyed the whole of the Hinterland area for beetles in 2025.
A total of 121 invertebrate species were found, including 79 beetle species.
Important finds included six Nationally Scarce beetles:
- Pill beetle Morychus aeneus – a pill beetle, found in sandy habitats;
- Trypocopris vernalis – a dung beetle, found in sandy habitats;
- Round Fungus Beetle Leiodes furva – found in sandy habitats. Known from only one other site in Scotland;
- Psammporus insularis – an endemic beetle, found in sandy habitats;
- Epuraea terminalis – a woodland sap-feeding beetle. Known from only three other sites in Scotland.
The survey also recorded the scarce spider Drassyllus pusillus and the lacebug Acalypta carinata, both associated with sandy habitats.
Work in Wales has shown that 70-75% of sand dune invertebrates – especially beetles, bees, wasps, and moths – require bare sand and early successional stage habitats to complete their life cycles, many creating burrows in sand where their larvae can develop.
The FHT is very grateful to Inspiring Scotland for the funding which enabled this work.
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Epurea terminalis
Genus Leiodes
Morychus aenus
