DOOM: Glowworms bred in captivity to be released in southern England

[AtW]

Why is this a doom thread?

It was DOOM for new Gricer's sockie, no? He flown to the thread like a moth to light...

[ladymuck]

Why is this a doom thread? Reintroducing them must be a boom, Shirley?

[Whorty]

Went looking for them last summer, found them at Bradbury Rings in Dorset (near Wimbourne). Had never seen them before so was cool.

I though someone was winding me up, so didn't take a camera, only had my phone. Definitely more impressive in real life lol

[WTFH]

I remember walking back through the lanes from my local pub back in the 80's and the hedgerows were completely illuminated by them. It's the one and only time I've seen them in the UK.

Cool story, Gricer

Maybe he doesn't drink barley wine any more

I remember quite often meandering back from the pub down country lanes flanked by hedgerows that were a kaleidoscope of glowing red and green pinpricks of light.

Mind you, I don't drink barley wine anymore.

[TheDude]

My family went on an organised glow worm walk a few years ago and were told there we could report sightings to and they would be protected.

We found some on the golf course onto which our house borders and they had to stop mowing parts of the fairway which I hope irritated the local gammon.

[AtW]

Cool story, Gricer

[The Trade Winds]

I remember walking back through the lanes from my local pub back in the 80's and the hedgerows were completely illuminated by them. It's the one and only time I've seen them in the UK.

[AtW]

""They once lit up summer nights, people read by their luminescence and they’ve been celebrated by everyone from William Shakespeare to Crowfoot, a 19th-century North American chief.

But glowworms have had their lights dimmed by a cult of tidiness in the countryside, the loss of wild meadows and light pollution.

Now, hundreds of glowworms (Lampyris noctiluca) are being bred in captivity for release in two locations this summer, in an attempt to revive the declining species.

More than 500 glowworm larvae have already been set free in the grounds of Elvetham hotel in Hampshire, where wildflower meadows and nature-friendly scrubland is being restored. Hundreds more larvae, and some glowing adults, will be released at the hotel again this summer, and at Combeshead in Cornwall, a rewilded farm and glamping site.

The four-year reintroduction project is led by ecologist Derek Gow, who owns Combeshead and has been responsible for successful schemes to return water voles and beavers to the British countryside."

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...uthern-england