Why does the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service believe it needs to list this beetle as endangered?
The Salt Creek tiger beetle occurs in only a small area in eastern Nebraska and is considered the rarest insect in Nebraska. Intensive surveys for the Salt Creek tiger beetle document the loss of half of the remaining populations, from six to three populations, since 1991. The remaining populations of Salt Creek tiger beetles are under imminent threat of extinction from the destruction of its remaining habitat caused by past and ongoing residential, commercial, and industrial development and infrastructure in northern Lancaster County and Lincoln, Nebraska; increased freshwater runoff and sediment deposition from developed areas resulting in the reduction of salt concentrations and vegetative encroachment; bank sloughing from incised streams that were channelized; unregulated bank stabilization projects; pollution; pesticide application or runoff; cattle grazing and cultivation; artificial lighting, and inadequate regulatory mechanisms and reduced regulatory jurisdiction. Occupied barr
