{"id":38272,"date":"2024-05-18T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/e25f7d97-7de7-4bfb-9c3f-9e8052f6507f"},"modified":"2024-05-18T02:35:38","modified_gmt":"2024-05-18T00:35:38","slug":"cicadas-are-coming-scientists-to-bring-singing-bug-back-to-britain","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/cicadas-are-coming-scientists-to-bring-singing-bug-back-to-britain\/","title":{"rendered":"Cicadas are coming: scientists to bring singing bug back to Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conservationists announce plan to reintroduce species once found across the New Forest but not seen in the UK since the 1990s. <\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Saturday, 18 May 2024 at 00:00 AM<\/p>

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Cicadas aren\u2019t the easiest insects<\/a> to study in the wild. For a start, they\u2019re so well camouflaged as to be almost impossible to spot \u2013 locatable solely via their mating calls, some of which are inaudible to adult humans. The fact that cicada nymphs spend years (17 in one species!<\/a>) living underground makes things even trickier. Reintroducing the UK\u2019s only native cicada, as conservationists plan to do this summer, will therefore be quite the challenge.\u00a0<\/p>

The New Forest cicada,\u00a0Cicadetta montana<\/em>, was once found across the New Forest National Park. Thanks to habitat loss, however, there hasn\u2019t been a confirmed sighting since the 1990s.\u00a0<\/p>

Which is why this June, scientists from the Species Recovery Trust<\/a> (SRT) are travelling to Slovenia, home to a healthy population of this particular subspecies of\u00a0Cicadetta montana<\/em>. Supported by funding from Natural England<\/a>, they\u2019re hoping to catch 10 individuals (five females and five males) from which to breed a new UK population.<\/p>

Trillions of cicadas are about to emerge in the US in rare ‘cicada-geddon’ event<\/a><\/li><\/ul>
New forest cicada is the only cicada native to the UK. Credit: Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>
The insects \u2013 if they\u2019re able to find them \u2013 will be brought to Paultons Park, a zoo and theme park on the edge of the New Forest, Hampshire. There they will be transferred into a habitat of potted hazel and hawthorn saplings and purple moor grass.\u00a0<\/p>
If breeding takes place, the female will each lay several hundred eggs in the twigs of the hazel and hawthorn. Upon hatching in November, the cicada nymphs, each smaller than a grain of rice, will fall to the soil below and burrow down, settling in for a period of six to eight years spent sucking sap from the roots of the hazel and moor grass.<\/p>
$\"New$
New Forest cicada males are known for their distinctive high-pitched songs, which they use to attract females during mating season. Credit: Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>
In January, Charlotte Carne, who is leading on the project for the SRT, will plant out several of the saplings at secret locations within the New Forest. The others will be kept at Paultons Park with a view to creating a back-up captive breeding population. Then it\u2019s just a matter of waiting patiently \u2013 until at least 2030 \u2013 to see if the plan has worked.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cThe New Forest cicada has a real intrinsic value as the only cicada species native to the UK,\u201d says Carne. \u201cI want my children to be able to walk through the forest in 10 or 20 years and hear them.\u201d<\/p>
More about animals:<\/strong><\/p>
DNA confirms there IS a big cat roaming the British countryside<\/a><\/li>
How beavers are saving an ancient English village<\/a><\/li>
Wild bison thriving in the UK<\/a><\/li><\/ul> <\/body><\/html>\n
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