Assessment Rationale:

This species occurs on the islands of Tenerife and La Palma. The extent of occurrence covers 135 km2 on Tenerife, and 85 km2 on La Palma. It is widespread, but severely fragmented. On Tenerife, the species is well protected, but on La Palma it is under pressure because of low conservation measures and higher risk of wild fires. Due to the fragmentation, single threats can severely impact subpopulations. Therefore, it is assessed as Near Threatened (NT), almost meeting criteria B.

Geographic Range:

This species occurs on the islands of Tenerife and La Palma. The extent of occurence covers 135 km2 on Tenerife (with 12 locations and 24 sites of 1 km² each), and 85 km2 on La Palma (with 5 locations and 7 sites of 1 km² each). It is widespread but severely fragmented. On Tenerife it’s located in the natural forests of the Anaga mountains (center of occurrence), and scattered in the eastern and western slopes of the Teide massif and the Teno mountains in a height between 350 and 1700 m. On La Palma it has a much more scattered distribution in the north-west of the island.

Population:

The size and trend within the subpopulations are stable.

Habitat and Ecology

This species lives in the humid parts of the local pine forests (Pinar), in Laurel forests (Laurisilva), and the Fayal-Brezal. The species's presence is restricted to the northern parts of both islands. 

Major Threat(s):

Deforestation and fires (particularly on La Palma) can be a threat to this species locally. It is unlikely that a threat would affect the whole range or population of this species.

Conservation Actions

The subpopulations on Tenerife are almost completely under local conservation schemes. On La Palma, only 2 locations are under protection. Valido et al. (1999) estimated the conservation status of the species as LR/nt (low risk) on Tenerife and LR/ lc (low risk) on la Palma.