Work has just begun (May 2008)  on a two year project to increase the knowledge of the montane invertebrates of Scotland, which includes all insect orders and spiders. The work, which is mainly funded by Scottish Natural Heritage,  is being managed by staff in the National Museums of Scotland. Other partners include the National Trust for Scotland, the John Muir Trust and Butterfly Conservation Scotland. The project will run for two years and will include an  extensive sampling programme on  mountain sites owned by the partner organisations.

At this time of climatic change it is essential that we obtain up to date information on Scotland’s montane invertebrate species and establish their geographical and attitudinal distribution to act as baselines against which any further monitoring work can be set.

The project comprises of five main areas of work :

• Development of a database of Scottish Montane Invertebrates - to be compiled from specimens in museum collections, literature references and from specimens collected as part of the project
• Sampling and collection of new material - water trap / pitfall trap sampling to be undertaken on 10 mountain sites across Scotland owned by the partners
• Identification of specimens - to be organised by the National Museums of Scotland with resulting specimens added to their collections
• Studies of montane Lepidoptera - survey work undertaken by BC(S) to determine present geographic and attitudinal distribution of montane Lepidoptera concentrating on BAP species such as the Black Mountain moth - as shown in the photograph to the right.
• Analysis and outputs - database of all records of montane species will be made available - scientific papers, seminars and reports.

Hand collecting of specimens by entomologists and volunteers will also form part of the survey effort and hopefully shall provide some more up to date information on the attitudinal distribution of  species such as the montane beetle Nebria nivalis