Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

New bug recorded for first time in Scotland at Highland nature reserve

Post Thumbnail

A particular species of insect has been officially recorded in Scotland for the first time after being discovered at a nature reserve in the Highlands.

Psallus montanus, a species of plantbug, was found by RSPB Scotland volunteer Bob Fleetwood at the charity’s Inshes Marshes nature reserve near Kingussie.

The females of the species are black and red in colour, while the males characterised by a duller black and brown.

Mr Fleetwood has volunteered at Insh Marshes for four years and routinely carries out survey work on the reserve. He found the female Psallus montanus 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.”

Psallus montanus has only been recognised as a British species fairly recently and is similar to Psallus betuleti, which also occurs on birch.

Bugs are an order of insects generally characterised by having two pairs of wings and piercing mouthparts

RSPB Scotland Insh Marshes is one of the most important wetlands in Europe, home to bird species such as curlew, snipe, whooper swan, redshank and lapwing.