Rarely seen predatory snakefly spotted in Inverness garden

A rarely seen insect that can move its head and upper body like a snake has been spotted in an Inverness garden.

Pine Snakeflies - scientific name Atlantoraphidia maculicollis - live at the top of trees and are scarcely seen at lower levels.

They are predatory, feeding on aphids and other small insects, and females have a long needle-like "ovipositor" which they use for laying eggs in tiny cracks in tree bark.

There are more than 200 known species of snakefly in the world, but only four have been recorded in the UK.

Invertebrates charity Buglife Scotland said just one of the four species -Atlantoraphidia maculicollis - had been recorded in Scotland.

"It is associated with pine trees where it lives right up in the top of the canopy," a spokesperson said.

"It's the only species of snakefly that has been found in Scotland and is probably under-recorded due to its tree-topping habit."

The insects can sometimes be blown down to lower levels by high winds.

In Germany, they are known as camel-neck flies.