Some insect invaders stick around
WHEN it comes to weird and wonderful insects, the South West can lay claim to a group of bizarre invertebrates that most people would associate with zoos and pet shop exotics – and I was sent a photo of one ( right) by a reader: a stick insect.
It may sound surprising, but the West is home to several species of stick insect, and this is a good time of year to spot them as they sun themselves in autumn out in the open.
They are not native to Britain, but were introduced a good while back, originating in New Zealand and probably arriving on shipments of garden tree ferns and other plants.
According to the invertebrate conservation charity Buglife three species have become successfully established in the Westcountry – and unlike some ‘alien invaders’, these naturalised stick insects “appear to have no negative impact upon native wildlife or plants, although further research is needed”.
The first UK record was of a prickly stick-insect found in a Paignton garden in 1909, and later at Tresco Abbey Gardens on the Isles of Scilly. The next species was a smooth stickinsect discovered in 1949, also in Tresco Abbey Gardens, followed by an unarmed stick-insect recorded at Truro in 1979. Mediterranean stick-insects have also been found on Tresco.
It looks like the species photographed by reader Mary Hurren, who lives near Truro, is an unarmed stick-insect, the most common of the wellcamouflaged species found here.
She did well to spot it at all!