'Back from the dead' - musical cicadas reintroduced to UK
Conservationists from the Species Recovery Trust (SRT) believe new forest cicadas went extinct in the 1990s due to changes in how land was managed.
They have now released 11 female cicadas from France, some of which are believed to be pregnant, into a specially created habitat just outside the woods they once populated.
Charlotte Carne, Project Officer at Species Recovery Trust, said: "This has been a really challenging project so it's amazing to see new forest cicadas in England after all this time."
She added that it is like "bringing them back from the dead".
Having returned from a collection trip to Slovenia empty-handed, the trust called on a prominent French entomologist and cicada expert to help source some insects.
The 11 insects, which are black with golden rings and transparent wings, were caught in northern France and shipped to the UK this week.
Conservationists will not know until 2029 whether this phase of the project has been successful.
This depends on whether they have reproduced, as their offspring spend at least four years underground as nymphs.
If they survive, conservationists will release the adults in the new forest.
Dominic Price, Species Recovery Trust Director, said he believes the new forest cicada probably went extinct because of changes to the way land was managed.
However, he said the trust has worked with Forestry England to put the right kind of management in place.
"What's more, we think that our warming climate could also favour their survival, so we are very hopeful that one day soon, cicadas will sing in the New Forest again," Mr Price added.
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