A FLY which has apparently never ventured beyond a tiny strip of an east Highland beach could be facing extinction, scientists warn.
Fonseca's seed fly is on the nation's Biodiversity Action Plan but a paper by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) highlights just how limited the insect's world is thought to be. Experts believe the fly, Botanophila fonsecai, is restricted to a 328-feet long strip of land on the north shore of the Dornoch Firth.
The population is small and is subject to environmental changes, while its beach habitat is frequently being trampled by humans taking part in recreational activities on the beach.
"Consequently, B. fonsecai is particularly susceptible to extinction," SNH scientists say.
In 2010 Botanophila fonsecai was found at four sites: Dornoch Point, Dornoch Sands, Dornoch north dunes and Embo dunes.
Compared to collection data from the 1970s and 1980s, populations were low, which could be interpreted as decline, a missed peak of activity or normal population variability.
No host plants could be found. But, four specimens seemed to be associated with bare sand in lyme grass.
While it has never been found elsewhere, SNH thinks there are expanses of dunes on the east and north coast of Scotland that may harbour the species.
These include: other beach sites on the east of Sutherland; from Keiss Links north of Wick along the north coast to Durness; along the Moray Firth coast including Culbin Dunes, Whiteness Head and Findhorn; the dunes from Lossiemouth to Aberdeen and Aberdeen southwards.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article