13:54 Tuesday 02 August 2016
A new bug has been officially
recorded in Scotland for the first time. The black and red female Psallus montanus was discovered by Bob
Fleetwood, a volunteer for RSPB Scotland, at the charity's Insh Marshes nature
reserve near Kingussie in the Highlands.
The black and red female Psallus montanus was discovered at the
RSPB's Insh Marshes nature reserve near Kingussie in the Highlands Mr Fleetwood,
who has volunteered at the reserve for four years, spotted the insect while
collecting and recording beetles and bugs from a birch tree.
He said: "Of all the bugs I
came across that day, this one looked quite distinctive. "As I'm still
learning, I wasn't 100% certain what it was, so I contacted the national
recorder for terrestrial bugs, Jim Flanagan, who positively identified it as a
female Psallus montanus. "When I
got the confirmation back that this was the first official record of this bug
in Scotland, of course I was over the moon. Every day is different when you're
volunteering and this just goes to show that you don't have to be an expert to
play a part in an exciting discovery like this."
Pete Moore, reserve warden at
Insh Marshes, said: "Volunteers are vital to the work of RSPB Scotland and
we wouldn't be able to achieve the amount we do for conservation without all of
their hard work. "We're delighted for Bob in making this exciting
discovery and it's a brilliant record to add to the growing list of species we
have here at Insh Marshes too."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!