Amazingly, up to 20 of the two-inch long creatures – so-named because of their habit of burrowing underground with their front feet – are believed to be digging away at a secret location in the New Forest.

Experts believed they had been listening to the males’ distinctive mating calls – said to resemble the “churring” song of the nightjar – in the heart of the Hampshire countryside over the past four years, but only now has a confirmed sightings of the creature come to light.

Conservationists are calling for an urgent national recovery plan for the legally-protected mole cricket, which was once reasonably common in damp meadows, sandy heaths and even potato fields across the south of England in Victorian Times.

By the 1960s, numbers were dwindling fast and, in 1987, the mole cricket was officially declared Endangered in the UK.