National Insect Week: Rare Invertebrates in the Cairngorms
Insects are an essential part of nature – and they’re important for people too!
Published: 1 July 2025
They play a crucial role in our ecosystems but are often overlooked. For National Insect Week we’re celebrating the Rare Invertebrates in the Cairngorms (RIC) partnership project which has been working to improve the conservation fortunes of some of our rarest insects since 2017.
The project currently focuses on five species - Pine Hoverfly, Aspen Hoverfly, Dark Bordered Beauty Moth, Kentish Glory Moth and Small Scabious Mining Bee, with other invertebrates - Shining Guest Ant, Northern February Red, Northern Silver Stiletto Fly and Northern Damselfly – being part of the project previously. Through efforts including habitat management and creation, breeding for release programmes and engagement, the project is making a difference for the little guys.
Read on to discover more about some of the species and how RIC is working to secure a future for them.
The Dark Bordered Beauty is a nationally rare moth, now restricted to two wild populations in Scotland. The decision was taken in 2020 to start a captive breeding programme, led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), and carry out translocations.
Eggs, caterpillars and adults have now been released at two sites in Strathspey. Following releases, RIC staff and volunteers do moth trapping surveys to check whether eggs and caterpillars are surviving into adulthood.
Alongside releases, the partnership undertakes habitat management at sites in Deeside, protecting and enhancing Aspen to help create future release sites in Strathspey.
The Small Scabious Mining-bee is only found in the Badenoch and Strathspey area and two other locations in the Scottish Highlands. While adults forage for nectar from a range of flower species, females rely on the presence of Devil’s-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis) for pollen to stock the nest with for the developing young.
Various habitat management work has been delivered through the project, including creating bee banks, advising golf courses to delay mowing of areas, planting of Devil’s Bit Scabious and removal of scrub to prevent shading out of nesting sites.
Over 1000 Devils’ Bit Scabious plants have been grown by a local nursery thanks to seed collection efforts from staff and volunteers. These will be planted out this summer as part of the project’s efforts to join up and create more meadow habitat.
Through the project, there have been 342 surveys that were positive for the bee in the Cairngorms.
Pine Hoverfly is one of Britain’s rarest insects. The species relies on old growth Scots Pine and a mix of flowering trees and plants where cavities or ‘rot holes’ fill with water and form a bacterial “soup”. Through RIC, over 1,000 new rot holes have been created, and work is done with landowners to ensure important habitat is protected.
RZSS, a RIC partner, have a groundbreaking conservation breeding for release programme for Pine Hoverfly based at Highland Wildlife Park. Each year, teams search through sawdust soup to count larvae and see how many have survived and bred from the previous year. In June 2022, the first adult in over a decade was spotted in the wild.
While thousands of Pine Hoverfly have been released thanks to the breeding programme, it is still too soon to know if releases have been successful in establishing a self-sustaining population. To find out, the project has stopped releasing Pine Hoverfly at one site and will continue to monitor numbers.
Volunteers have always been a huge part of RIC, allowing us to expand our survey and habitat work across the Cairngorms. This can involve walking through meadows head down looking for Small Scabious Mining bees, staring at small birch trees to find the tell-tale bubble wrap eggs of the Kentish Glory moth, creating bee banks, moth trapping, searching sawdust soup jars for Pine Hoverfly and so much more. Volunteers make it happen!
Each of the focus species has always had a dedicated species champion who goes that extra mile helping to plan and coordinate survey efforts, liaise with landowners and contractors and celebrate the species.
Thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery, we’re able to continue building an incredible network of volunteers helping protect important invertebrates as part of the Species Volunteer Network.
Discover more about Rare Invertebrates in the Cairngorms
The Rare Invertebrates in the Cairngorms Project is a partnership between Buglife, Butterfly Conservation, Cairngorms National Park Authority, NatureScot, RSPB and RZSS.
From 2017-2019 RIC was part-financed by the Scottish Government and the European Community LEADER 2014-2020 programme. From 2020 onwards the project has been funded by CNPA and RSPB Scotland with contributions to support habitat work from Biodiversity Challenge Fund (via CNPA), Cairngorms Connect (via the Endangered Landscapes Programme), the Cairngorms Trust Green Recovery fund and the Nature Restoration Fund (2021-2023). From 2025 to 2028 the project is funded by the John Swire 1989 Charitable Trust.