New stick insect colonies were found in Padstow and Shortlandsend, near Truro. But perhaps the most exciting find was the largest population of stick insects in the UK – over 140 individual stick insects were counted in one garden in mid-Cornwall!
 Malcolm Lee.jpg) |
| Unarmed stick insect (Acanthoxyla inermis) © Malcom Lee |
Conservation Officer Andrew Whitehouse comments “This is an incredible find. For every stick insect spotted there are often many more that are not seen – hidden deeper in a bush or hedge – this colony could support over 300 stick insects!”
Andrew adds “Not many people realise that we have stick insects living in the wild in the West Country – they are not native to the UK but are able to survive in the South West thanks to our mild winters. Stick insect eggs are unable to survive hard frosts, but in mild areas such as the Isles of Scilly and parts of Cornwall and Devon they are able to survive. It would seem we now have a few expanding colonies of these insects. Early Autumn is a good time of year to look for stick insects, as the weather gets colder they seek warmth by basking on south-facing walls – this makes them easier to spot.”
Malcolm Lee, Cornish-based stick insect expert, who helped run the survey, says “Stick insects arrived in this country on imported plants from New Zealand. The first species to arrive, the Prickly stick-insect (Acanthoxyla geisovii), was recorded in Paignton in 1909 and on Tresco on the Isles of Scilly in 1943. A second species, the Smooth stick-insect (Clitarchus hookeri), turned up on Tresco in 1949, and yet a third species, the Unarmed stick-insect (Acanthoxyla inermis), was found in Truro in 1979, but it may have been in a nearby nursery since the 1920s.”
“New records from this survey will help us to monitor how quickly stick-insects are spreading across the county. I was interested to see that, despite the last two bitter winters, we still received an impressive number of records which indicates that stick insects are still going strong in Cornwall.”
