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London commuter rediscovers tiny, invasive bug not seen for 18 years
During her commute from work, Giuliana Sinclair noticed a tiny bug crawling over her bag.
As one of the Natural History Museum's Community Science Officers, she took a quick snap of the insect, posted it online, and thought little more of it.
Within days it transpired that Giuliana had recorded an invasive species not seen in the UK for almost two decades and in the process spurred a nation-wide monitoring effort.
Even the most blurry photo can be consequential.
After posting an “awful” image of an insect on the internet, Giuliana Sinclair put in motion a national monitoring campaign to seek out an invasive bug last seen in the UK 18 years ago. In the process, she’s highlighted how powerful the online nature community can be and how anyone can make a significant contribution to protecting the natural world.
“I was just on my way home from work on the bus, and I sat down and put my backpack on my lap,” she recalls. “And I found this little creature that was just crawling around on my backpack. It was very tiny and kind of lacy.”
Giuliana was about to coax it out the window, before thinking, “you know what, I’ll take a picture”.
“It’s the blurriest picture that you’d never think would be important,” laughs Giuliana. She posted it on the community science app iNaturalist, and carried on home.
After posting a blurry picture on to iNaturalist, the little bug was positively identified as a plane lace bug.
But from that single blurry photo sparked a national campaign. A few days later Giuliana got a message from someone who had seen the picture on iNaturalist and suggested that the insect might be of significance, asking for more information on where and when it was found.
It turned out that experts on the app were confident enough to confirm the bug’s identification as an invasive species of insect known as the plane lace bug.
“The Woodland Trust then got involved and deployed their tree surveillance volunteers, and the Forestry Commission is now running surveys all over the UK,” explains Giuliana.
“Just from this one picture, which was the first time it had been recorded in the UK in 18 years.”
What is the plane lace bug?
There are around 2,000 species of lace bugs found around the world, of which around 24 are native to the UK. Most species are tiny with a striking lace-like structure that covers the body. Most are only found on a single type of plant.
The plane lace bug, Corythucha ciliata, is native to the United States where it’s typically called the sycamore lace bug. This is because the bug feeds on trees in the genus Platanus, which in the US are referred to as sycamores but in the UK are usually experienced as London plane trees.
What to do if you find a plane lace bug
- Check the insect you’ve seen is a plane lace bug by using the identification guide on the Observatree website.
- If you think you’ve discovered a plane lace bug, report it to Tree Alert.
- Get more involved by becoming an Observatree volunteer. Find out more on their website.
While London plane trees have been planted extensively throughout London and many urban areas since Victorian times, the plane lace bug wasn’t recorded in Europe until 1964. Since then, it has spread throughout the continent. It also made it across to the UK, with an outbreak occurring in Bedfordshire in 2006.
The bugs feed on tree sap, biting through leaves and causing them to discolour. While the lace bugs themselves are unlikely to kill the trees, they are thought to make the plants more susceptible to fungal infections which can have serious health implications.
As the plane tree is London’s most common tree, it’s one of the most important in the capital, helping to cool the streets, reduce pollution and mitigate against flooding.
No one had recorded a plane lace bug in the UK since the Bedfordshire outbreak. So, when Giuliana posted a picture to iNaturalist of the little insect hitchhiking across London on her backpack, it caused something of a stir.
London plane trees are an important part of the city, helping to cool the air, reduce pollution and improve wellbeing ©Photos BrianScantlebury/Shutterstock
Tracking the lace bug in the UK
In the wake of Giuliana’s finding, volunteers surveyed trees around the Natural History Museum but found nothing. Eventually, they discovered a population living in a nearby park. How one ended up on Giuliana’s bag is uncertain, although the adults are known to be good flyers.
“Volunteers from Observatree, a multi-partnership project set up by Forest Research, play an important role in protecting the nation’s woodlands from pests and diseases through surveillance,” explains Andrea Deol, the Forestry Commission’s head of plant health forestry.
“Following recent findings in central London of plane lace bugs, we are conducting further surveillance and ask members of the public to help by reporting suspected plane lace bug findings via our online portal, TreeAlert.”
One thing is certain, however, and that’s the power of online apps like iNaturalist. The ability to crowd source information and expertise means that anyone can play a part in monitoring and protecting the natural world.
“How many plants do we walk past, how many insects, and not think anything of them?” muses Giuliana. “You don’t need to be an expert. Just by taking a picture and uploading it, we have the power of community science behind us – and look at what that creates.”
