A beetle thought to have been extinct in the UK since 1948 has been rediscovered.
The National Trust said the short-necked oil beetle, known as Meloe brevicollis, was found by entomologist Bob Beckford on trust land in South Devon.
Oil beetles were formerly more common, but their natural habitats and the populations of bees they rely on have been decimated by intensive farming practices.
The coastal strip of land where the oil beetle was discovered has been managed less intensively as farmland, therefore creating a habitat where the beetle could survive undisturbed.
This important site will be monitored and the lifecycle of the insect examined in more detail so the National Trust can work with its tenant farmer to make sure the land is managed in a way that helps the oil beetle flourish.
The short-necked oil beetles were last recorded at Chailey Common, Sussex in 1948. This discovery of the beetle was made between Bolt Head and Bolt Tail in south Devon.
In total 40 short-necked oil beetles have been found at this site.
David Bullock, head of nature conservation at the National Trust said: "The discovery of a beetle that was thought to be extinct for nearly 60 years is an amazing story of survival, particularly for a species with such an interdependent lifecycle. It's likely that this population of the short-necked oil beetle has survived because they inhabit an area of land that has avoided the intensive farming methods on surrounding arable land."
All oil beetles have an unusual appearance and a strange life history. Adult beetles are flightless, large and slow moving, the bodies, especially of females, are swollen and the wing cases are short and rudimentary. Oil beetles get their name from the highly toxic oil secretions they produce when threatened.
Adult oil beetles, which live for about three months, lay up to 1,000 eggs in a burrow in soft or sandy soil and eggs hatch in the following spring. The young larvae are unusual in being very active and long-legged and are known as triungulins after their three claws.
