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Tenebrionid beetles in California’s Coachella Valley sand dunes have the highest species richness of any dune system reported for the Mojave and lower Sonoran Desert regions. This beetle assemblage has an uneven distribution, with species richness at any one location varying from 9 to 29 species, Although environmental measurements failed to explain the distribution of this beetle community. distributions of many individual species appeared to be related to a pronounced west to east moisture and temperature gradient. High species richness coupled with an uneven, somewhat unpredictable distribution makes conservation of this community problematic. Previous conservation efforts to protect the sand-dune dwelling Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard, Uma mornata, have resulted in locations being: set aside which are occupied by all the tenebrionid dune species. Although rarely the focus of conservation efforts, the relatively easily sampled beetle assemblage provides a subjective evaluation of the breadth of conservation success hv determining how completely protection was achieved in a non-target taxonomic group.