A 30-Year History of Salt Creek Tiger Beetle, \u3ci\u3eEllipsoptera nevadica lincolniana\u3c/i\u3e (Casey, 1916) (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae), Visual Population Estimates

The federally endangered Salt Creek tiger beetle, Ellipsoptera nevadica lincolniana (Casey, 1916), is found only in the saline wetlands around Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. Low numbers of adults seen in the 1980s prompted a study to estimate adult numbers by visual counts. Population estimates were conducted from 1991 to 2020, and adult estimates ranged from a low of 115 in 1993 to a high of 777 in 2002. The beetle has disappeared from six out of twelve sites and the metapopulation has shrunk from three sites in 1991 to one site in 2020. Supplemental releases of laboratory reared larvae began in 2010, but success has been difficult to determine