The Scaly Cricket (Pseudomogoplistes vicentae), one of our rarest insects, has been rediscovered at Branscombe Beach in Devon. It had disappeared as a result of the Napoli grounding fiasco, in January 2007 and the only other UK sites where it is known are Chesil Beach (Dorset) and Marloe Sands (Pembrokeshire).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7649776.stm

http://environment.uk.msn.com/green-living/article.aspx?cp-documentid=9892831

The good old Cornish Pasty (that traditional lunch box inclusion for Cornish miners) appears to have been the bait that won the day - all other attempts had failed. The UK Scaly Cricket was first discovered in Devon and there are ugly rumours that the Cornish Pasty may have originated in Devon.

The Napoli affair was an environmental disaster that should not have been allowed to happen on the Jurassic Coast, which appears to have had no contingency plan to deal with such a disaster. The resultant invasion by looters was a revolting comment on human nature and British character but how was the intentional grounding allowed to happen on a World Heritage Site without proper protection from the environmental threat and from the dregs of society that descended on the area? I'll never understand why there were no prosecutions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6287457.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6687659.stm

Once the authorities had finally managed to secure the area, my wife and daughter among many others were not allowed to go to the beach as volunteers, to help clear up the mess! Our bureaucracy swings from one extreme to another.

Anyway, it is a relief that the furtive Scaly Cricket appears not to have been a casualty after all.