Elusive insect population survives MSC Napoli disaster

Scaly cricket. Credit Adrian Colston/NT.

September 2008. 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.

The Scaly cricket is only known at only three sites, (Chesil beach in Dorset and Marloe Sands in Pembrokeshire are the others) in the UK and it had vanished from Branscombe after the grounding of the MSC Napoli in January 2007 and effects of winter storms.

Unknown lifecycle
The Scaly cricket only 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.

Pitfall traps
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."

MSC Napoli
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."