Eggs of extinct singing insect brought back to UK

British conservationists have travelled to a French military base to bring a long-lost singing insect back to the UK.

The Species Recovery Trust (SRT) has collected New Forest Cicada eggs from the Académie militaire de Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan in Brittany and brought them back to Paultons Park Zoo in Hampshire.

The insect was last seen in the New Forest in the 1990s and specialist listening equipment was used to locate the insect in France and its eggs which were hidden inside the stems of bracken.

The plant samples were transported back across the Channel on last month, with hopes that they will eventually be able to re-establish the species in the south of England.

Pete Hughes, a volunteer with the SRT joined the recent expedition and said: "It was all very exciting."

He said: "We went creeping around the grounds of this military base using ultrasound detectors to try to hear the male cicadas singing, so it did feel a bit James Bond."

The 5,300-hectare military academy near Rennes, is a vast site which contains a patchwork of woodland and grassland similar to habitats found in the New Forest.

Researchers collected 20 bracken stems bearing scars left by females as they deposited eggs inside the plant tissue.

Back at Paultons Park the zoo had devised miniature vases designed to keep the stems alive while preventing any newly hatched nymphs from falling into water.

The New Forest cicada, Cicadetta montana, was once found across the national park - but the last confirmed sightings were in the 1990s.

Conservationists believe changes in habitat management may have contributed to its disappearance.

Although extinct in the UK, the species continues to thrive in parts of mainland Europe.

In 2023, the SRT secured funding from Natural England to explore whether the insect could be successfully reintroduced to Britain using donor populations from continental Europe.

An initial attempt last year involved capturing 11 female cicadas in France.

Even if the eggs hatch successfully, conservationists face a lengthy wait.

The immature insects are believed to spend between four and 10 years underground feeding on plant roots before emerging as adults.

Only then could the final stage of the project begin, which would be releasing the cicadas at a carefully chosen secret location in the New Forest.

Charlotte Carne, programmes manager at the SRT, said researchers were still uncovering basic details about the insect's life cycle.

"We're really excited about the project because, by rearing the cicadas in captivity first, we are learning a lot about their life cycle and behaviour, much of which is still a mystery even to experts across Europe," she said.

"We are now able to look forward to a time when we can once again walk through the New Forest in summer and hear hundreds of cicadas singing their hearts out."

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