Extremely rare Scaly cricket survives Napoli grounding

Amazing coverage from the National Trust press release below. We had radio coverage on Radios 1, 2, 4 and 5 Live, TV coverage on the BBC and ITV .

Here is the link to the BBC website and here
The Independent
Daily Telegraph
Daily Mail
The Scotsman
Newssniffer
This is Cornwall
MSN Environment
Western Morning News
Virgin Media
AOL News
Wildlife Extra
Planet Watch
Mid Devon Star
Web India

National Trust press release

EMBARGOED UNTIL 00.01 FRIDAY 3 OCTOBER 2008

Extremely rare Scaly cricket survives Napoli grounding

Missing for nearly 18 months and with concerns for its survival, one of the rarest insects in Britain has been found again on Branscombe beach in south Devon.

Found at only three sites in the UK [1] the Scaly cricket (Pseudomogoplistes vicentae) had vanished after the grounding of the MSC Napoli in January 2007 and effects of winter storms.

The Scaly cricket was first discovered on Branscombe Beach in 1998. This curious little insect, whose life cycle isn’t yet fully understood, is nocturnal and lives on shingle beaches feeding on general waste. Normally found in the Mediterranean the cricket measures between 8 and 13 millimetres long and they can live for up to three years.

Adrian Colston, National Trust property manager for Dartmoor and the Orthoptera recorder who made the rediscovery, said: “After walking along the shingle beach and drawing a blank I changed my tactics in the hunt for this elusive cricket. I set five pitfall traps at various points on the beach at Branscombe using cat biscuits, pieces of apple and a bit of my Cornish pasty as bait. When I returned I found that one of the traps contained a single adult female Scaly cricket.”

In January 2007 the MSC Napoli was deliberately grounded in Lyme Bay off Branscombe following damage it suffered in a storm in the Western Approaches. Following the massive clean up operation concerns were raised for the survival of this tiny cricket as a result of the debris from the stricken ship and bad weather.

Adrian Colston, said: “This rediscovery has come as a real relief and it’s likely a healthy population of Scaly crickets can still be found on Branscombe beach. They are notoriously difficult to find and their location away from the main site of the Napoli activity certainly helped increase the likelihood that they would survive.”

-Ends-

Further press information or images from: Claire Bolitho, National Trust Communications Officer on 01392 883105 / 07901 971156 claire.bolitho@nationaltrust.org.uk or Mike Collins, Senior Press Officer, on 01793 817708, 07900 138419, mike.collins@nationaltrust.org.uk

Notes for Editors:
· Media opportunity: Friday 3 Oct, 2008, 11am. Please meet Adrian Colston, who re-discovered the scaly cricket on Branscombe Beach at Branscombe Beach Carpark, Branscombe. You will then be taken to the site for interviews and pictures. (please note this is a privately owned pay and display carpark)

[1] As well as Branscombe beach the Scaly Cricket is found on Chesil beach in Dorset and Marloe Sands in Pembrokeshire.

In 2007, a beetle which had been thought to be extinct in the UK since 1948 and has a unique lifecycle was found on National Trust land in south Devon. Two years earlier the rare long-headed clover was found on the same site as the short-necked oil beetle in south Devon. It had only previously been recorded at the Lizard in Cornwall in the Twentieth Century, although formerly occurred in South Devon.

The National Trust was founded in 1895 with the specific aim of acting as a guardian for the nation in the acquisition and protection of threatened coastline, countryside and buildings.
National Trust ownership of coastline ensures that, wherever possible, public access is allowed and in many cases increased – not always easy to achieve when balanced against the needs of fragile environments. The Trust has a continuing programme of footpath creation, repair and improvement, which includes provision for disabled visitors, the very young and for those interested in all aspects of the coast and its attractions.

The scaly cricket still at Branscombe

The scaly cricket (Pseudomogoplistes vicentae) is a very rare insect in the Britain – in fact it is only known from 3 sites: - Chesil Beach (Dorset), Branscombe Beach (Devon) and Marloes Sands (Pembrokeshire). It was first found on Chesil Beach in 1949, it was found at Branscombe in 1998 and in Pembrokeshire in 1999. It is a curious insect whose life cycle isn’t fully understood, it is nocturnal and lives on shingle beaches feeding on general detritus. A full account of its discovery in Britain can be found in Peter Sutton’s paper in British Wildlife magazine (1999) volume 10 pages 145-51.

In January 2007 the MSC Napoli was deliberately grounded in Lyme Bay off Branscombe following damage it suffered in a storm in Western Approaches. Few will forget the scenes of thousands of ‘wreckers’ looting the containers which came ashore on Branscombe. Once the containers stopped coming ashore and law and order was returned to the parish of Branscombe the clear up operation instigated by the Napoli’s insurers began. This involved clearing up the general rubbish and cleaning the beach of oil. All of this bode very badly for the scaly cricket living as it does in the direct impact and pollution zone.

A number of ecologists and entomologists expressed concern over the fate of the scaly cricket with many emails and phone calls ensuing. This turned into an unfortunate Chinese whispers exercise resulting in a note in British Wildlife 19 p207 stating that a healthy population of scaly crickets had survived. This was untrue – no one had seen a scaly cricket at Branscombe to my knowledge following the Napoli disaster.

As county recorder for orthoptera in Devon I set myself the goal in 2008 to try and re-find the species at Branscombe. I made my first trip in late August at dusk and after trudging a kilometre up the shingle beach it started to rain and I didn’t find anything except rock hoppers. Following a conservation with Peter Sutton, the National Scheme Organiser for Orthoptera I set 5 pitfall traps at various points on the beach towards Beer Head, baited with some cat biscuits, pieces of apple and a bit of my Cornish pasty! I returned a couple of days later to find 2 traps had been vandalised, two only contained rock hoppers but the final one contained a single adult female scaly cricket.

Although only one animal was trapped I am confident that a good population survives. Fortunately the colony has always existed at the other end of the beach from the major Napoli activity and as the 1999 British Wildlife article stresses scaly crickets can be very hard to find.

I guess that an animal that lives under the shingle and flourishes despite winter storms and moving shingle terraces was always odds on favourite to survive the Napoli. Good news nevertheless.

Adrian Colston
Property Manager, The National Trust, Dartmoor

Cornish orthopteriods

ECM Haes and M Lee have produced a short Atlas to the orthoptera of Cornwall. Download here

British stick insects

Malcolm Lee is the British expert on stick insects in this country. He has produced a useful guide to the identification, ecology and distribution of the species found in the British Isles.

For more details press here.

Only one species has so far been recorded in the wild in Devon - the prickly stick insect.

Using a bat detector to ID grasshoppers and crickets

Malcolm Lee has produced an excellent paper on identifying grasshoppers and crickets by their song using a bat detector.

There is nothing extra I can add! Download his paper here. The note includes details on what type of bat detectors are available at what cost and song graphs of the individual species.

Malcolm has also produced recordings which you can listen to
Press here for grasshoppers
Press here for bush crickets