'Monster' of insect world, the great green cricket, spotted for first time in region

Thursday, August 19, 2010

A MONSTER of the insect world has been found lurking in our region for the first time.

The discovery of the great green bush cricket on wasteland in west Hull is exciting naturalists across East Yorkshire.

Naturalist Barry Warrington spotted the rare green insect while walking on a footpath along the Humber bank.

He managed to photograph the unusual male cricket, which has ears on its front legs, before it slunk back into the undergrowth.

The great green, which grows up to three inches long, has been seen only once previously in Yorkshire.

Mr Warrington, 32, of Buttfield Road, Hessle, said: "I was looking for insects when I made this discovery.

"I was on wasteland next to a footpath on the Humber bank trying to find a migrant hawker dragonfly.

"I was peering into a bush when I noticed a different shade of green, which turned out to be a huge cricket.

"I was gob-smacked. I had never seen anything like it before."

Accountant Mr Warrington, a keen wildlife photographer, managed to snap the striking insect.

He said: "It was pure luck I found it, but at the time I didn't know exactly what I had found.

"I showed the pictures to experts, who identified it as the great green bush cricket, which is usually seen only in the south.

"It is only just beginning to sink in how significant this discovery is."

The first time the great green was spotted in the county was in Dalby Forest in North Yorkshire last year.

Mr Warrington also found another rare insect, a speckled bush cricket, in the same area of west Hull this year.

He said: "I can't believe I found two rare crickets in such a short space of time.

"But seeing the male great green was really thrilling because it is Britain's biggest insect and a real monster."

Experts who study insects, called entomologists, have also been excited by his unusual discoveries.

Entomologist Dr David Chesmore, of York University, said: "It is exciting a great green bush cricket has been seen in Yorkshire for only the second time.

"It would be even more exciting if we could discover if this particular male was breeding where it was found."

Dr Chesmore was also impressed with Mr Warrington's discovery of a speckled bush cricket. He said: "The only previously recorded sighting of a speckled in Yorkshire was at Middleton-on-the-Wolds, near Driffield, in 1925.

"The obvious answer for this would be climate change, but the crickets could also have arrived on a vehicle travelling up from the south.

"We will be keeping a close eye on the situation because it would be brilliant if both species had started to breed in Yorkshire."

http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/news/Wildlife-photographer-spot-rare-great-green-bush-cricket-East-Yorkshire/article-2545916-detail/article.html

UK warned as plague of bee-eating hornets spreads north in France

• Pesticides and traps fail to halt steady colonisation
• British summer could be their downfall, says expert

Lizzy Davies in Paris
guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 September 2009 21.35 BST

For five years they have wreaked havoc in the fields of south-western France, scaring locals with their venomous stings and ravaging the bee population to feed their rapacious appetites. Now, according to French beekeepers, Asian predatory hornets have been sighted in Paris for the first time, raising the prospect of a nationwide invasion which entomologists fear could eventually reach Britain.

Claude Cohen, president of the Parisian region's apiculture development agency, said a hornet nest had been found this week in the centre of Blanc Mesnil, north-east of the capital.

If confirmed by further testing, the find will raise fears that the spread of the bee-eating Vespa velutina is no longer limited to the Aquitaine region near Bordeaux, where it is believed to have arrived on board container ships from China in 2004, and the surrounding south-west.

Denis Thiery, a specialist at the National Institute for Agricultural Research, said the hornets were likely to push on with a relentless colonisation of their adopted country until they become a common sight in vast swaths of France – and ultimately in other European states.

"We are seeing a real geographical expansion," he said, adding that an eventual invasion of southern England, which has a relatively mild climate the hornets would enjoy, could not be ruled out.

Biologists insist that this variety of Asian hornet, which can grow to an inch long, is no more ferocious than its European counterpart, although its stings, which contain more poison than those of wasps, can be very painful and can require hospital attention.

This summer swarms of the insects were reported to have attacked a mother and baby in the Lot-et-Garonne department, as well as pursuing passersby and tourists on bikes.

But the hornet's menace to human beings pales into insignificance in comparison with the destruction it wreaks on its chosen habitat. In south-western France, where its population surges each year, beleaguered beekeepers claim that they are being driven into the ground by the insect's destructive eating habits.

"We have literally been invaded," said Raymond Saunier, president of the Gironde department's beekeeping union. "In the past two to four years we have lost 30% of our hives. All it takes is two or three hornets near your hive and you've had it."

He added: "It's not just about us trying to make honey. What's even more serious is the effect they have on the pollination process [by killing so many bees]. It's really a disaster."

Faced with a demographic explosion which Thiery said had seen thousands of nests documented last year in the city of Bordeaux alone, entomologists are unsure of the best way to halt the hornets' seemingly unstoppable advance. Neither pesticides nor traps have proved particularly effective, largely because the creatures nest high off the ground in trees. The Vespa velutina has no natural predator on European soil.

Because of this, and a gradual shift in climate which experts believe could encourage the hornets to move north, many experts are adamant that the French scourge will at some point cross the Channel.

But the threat is not immediate, said Stuart Hind, head of the Natural History Museum's centre for biodiversity in London. "[A UK invasion] is very likely," he said. "It is entirely plausible. But it could be 10 to 15 years before they come knocking on our door."

But, he added, "If anything were to stop them it would be the good, old-fashioned British summers. They wouldn't cope well with heavy rain."

Insect invasions

March 2002
The pelargonium brown, a butterfly native to South Africa, was found to be eating its way through France by environmental research group Cemagref. It was considered a harmless addition to French insect life, although experts worried that it could oust local species. Thought to have ventured north because of warmer winters.

July 2005
Huge swarms of locusts ravaged the southern French region of Aveyron after a drought helped thousands of eggs to hatch. They wreaked havoc on hundreds of farms.

September 2009
In Britain's south-west, environmentalists were delighted by a surge in the population of one of the UK's most endangered butterflies. Experts recorded the second highest count of marsh fritillaries since weekly recording began in 1994.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/25/predatory-hornet-sighting-paris-france

See also: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/6049302/Tourists-warned-as-Asian-hornets-terrorise-French.html

UK warned as plague of bee-eating hornets spreads north in France

• Pesticides and traps fail to halt steady colonisation
• British summer could be their downfall, says expert

Lizzy Davies in Paris
guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 September 2009 21.35 BST

For five years they have wreaked havoc in the fields of south-western France, scaring locals with their venomous stings and ravaging the bee population to feed their rapacious appetites. Now, according to French beekeepers, Asian predatory hornets have been sighted in Paris for the first time, raising the prospect of a nationwide invasion which entomologists fear could eventually reach Britain.

Claude Cohen, president of the Parisian region's apiculture development agency, said a hornet nest had been found this week in the centre of Blanc Mesnil, north-east of the capital.

If confirmed by further testing, the find will raise fears that the spread of the bee-eating Vespa velutina is no longer limited to the Aquitaine region near Bordeaux, where it is believed to have arrived on board container ships from China in 2004, and the surrounding south-west.

Denis Thiery, a specialist at the National Institute for Agricultural Research, said the hornets were likely to push on with a relentless colonisation of their adopted country until they become a common sight in vast swaths of France – and ultimately in other European states.

"We are seeing a real geographical expansion," he said, adding that an eventual invasion of southern England, which has a relatively mild climate the hornets would enjoy, could not be ruled out.

Biologists insist that this variety of Asian hornet, which can grow to an inch long, is no more ferocious than its European counterpart, although its stings, which contain more poison than those of wasps, can be very painful and can require hospital attention.

This summer swarms of the insects were reported to have attacked a mother and baby in the Lot-et-Garonne department, as well as pursuing passersby and tourists on bikes.

But the hornet's menace to human beings pales into insignificance in comparison with the destruction it wreaks on its chosen habitat. In south-western France, where its population surges each year, beleaguered beekeepers claim that they are being driven into the ground by the insect's destructive eating habits.

"We have literally been invaded," said Raymond Saunier, president of the Gironde department's beekeeping union. "In the past two to four years we have lost 30% of our hives. All it takes is two or three hornets near your hive and you've had it."

He added: "It's not just about us trying to make honey. What's even more serious is the effect they have on the pollination process [by killing so many bees]. It's really a disaster."

Faced with a demographic explosion which Thiery said had seen thousands of nests documented last year in the city of Bordeaux alone, entomologists are unsure of the best way to halt the hornets' seemingly unstoppable advance. Neither pesticides nor traps have proved particularly effective, largely because the creatures nest high off the ground in trees. The Vespa velutina has no natural predator on European soil.

Because of this, and a gradual shift in climate which experts believe could encourage the hornets to move north, many experts are adamant that the French scourge will at some point cross the Channel.

But the threat is not immediate, said Stuart Hind, head of the Natural History Museum's centre for biodiversity in London. "[A UK invasion] is very likely," he said. "It is entirely plausible. But it could be 10 to 15 years before they come knocking on our door."

But, he added, "If anything were to stop them it would be the good, old-fashioned British summers. They wouldn't cope well with heavy rain."

Insect invasions

March 2002
The pelargonium brown, a butterfly native to South Africa, was found to be eating its way through France by environmental research group Cemagref. It was considered a harmless addition to French insect life, although experts worried that it could oust local species. Thought to have ventured north because of warmer winters.

July 2005
Huge swarms of locusts ravaged the southern French region of Aveyron after a drought helped thousands of eggs to hatch. They wreaked havoc on hundreds of farms.

September 2009
In Britain's south-west, environmentalists were delighted by a surge in the population of one of the UK's most endangered butterflies. Experts recorded the second highest count of marsh fritillaries since weekly recording began in 1994.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/25/predatory-hornet-sighting-paris-france

See also: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/6049302/Tourists-warned-as-Asian-hornets-terrorise-French.html