PORTLAND, Ore.— The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today to protect San Joaquin tiger beetles under the Endangered Species Act.

The beetles live only in the San Joaquin Valley of California and, within that valley, only in a small number of alkali sinks known as playas. Their narrow range in the highly agricultural and developed region, along with a severe population decline, puts them at serious risk of extinction.

“These beautiful beetles are hanging onto existence by a thread,” said Jess Tyler, a staff scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “They urgently need Endangered Species Act protection to survive.”

Alkali sinks in the San Joaquin Valley formed as a result of the flooding and drying cycles that historically formed Tulare Lake and surrounding wetlands. The tiger beetles can only be found in these open, bare patches of sandy, moist soil, where they use their acute eyesight to hunt small invertebrate prey.

However, the sink areas are highly vulnerable to conversion to agriculture that completely destroys the beetle’s habitat. Pesticide-intensive farming in the valley and widespread grazing further degrade the remaining habitat.

Groundwater infiltration projects, the encroachment of invasive vegetation and climate change also threaten the beetles’ survival.

San Joaquin tiger beetles are believed to survive at only four locations on private land in Madera and Kings counties and two locations in Tulare County: the Pixley National Wildlife Refuge and the Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.

Surveys show the subspecies has disappeared from its other historic locations, and its abundance has been observed to decline at all of the remaining sites, as well, save the newly discovered Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park site, where 100 adults were found in 2024.