Assessment Rationale:

This species is endemic to Madeira Island, where it is found on the southeastern coastal areas, between Caniço and Santa Cruz, and from Ponta de Sao Lourenço and the islet of Desembarcadouro. The main threats are predation by rodents (mice and rats) and habitat shifting, change or elimination due to extensive droughts, fires and residential development. Geological events such as landslides could play an important role mainly on the subpopulations from Ponta de São Lourenço, where tourism pressure is also significant (D. Teixeira pers. comm. 2016). An additional threat is acidification of the soil due to sea gull droppings. Since the population of the species is limited and there is a wide range of plausible threats, the species is assessed as Vulnerable under criterion D2. Further research is needed upon the overall population trend, distribution, habitat and ecology of the species.

Geographic Range:

This species is endemic to Madeira Island (Portugal), where it is originally found in the southeastern coastal areas, between Caniço and Santa Cruz (Wollaston 1878). Recently, Teixeira has found this species on Ponta de São Lourenço, and the Islet of Desembarcadouro, off its coast (D. Teixeira pers. comm. 2016). It is only found at three locations. 

Population:

There are no population abundance data for this species, although there are regular records over the last 16 years at Ponta de São Lourenço (D. Teixeira pers. comm. 2016). The population trend of the species is more stable on the islets than on the peninsula. There will be a monitoring scheme for these habitats from 2020 to 2025. 

Habitat and Ecology

The species is found on coastal areas, on sites dominated by Euphorbia piscatoria (Wollaston 1878) and on grasslands, associated to grasses and beneath stones (D. Teixeira, pers. comm. 2016). 

Major Threat(s):

The main threats to the species are predation by rodents (mice and rats) and habitat shifting, change or elimination due to extensive droughts, fires and residential development. Geological events such as landslides could play an important role mainly on the subpopulations from Ponta de São Lourenço, where tourism pressure is significant also (D. Teixeira pers. comm. 2016). There is also the presence of a large sea gull community on the offshore islets. They occasionally predate on species of its genus although their preferred food source is Theba pisana. However the main threat comes from bird droppings with acidification of the soil, compaction of the soil and other disturbances (D. Teixeira pers. comm. 2016).

Conservation Actions

No conservation actions are known to be implemented. Further research is needed upon the overall population trend, distribution, habitat and ecology of the species.