THEY are blamed for costing the Scottish tourism industry hundreds of millions of pounds.

Yet just when it seemed safe to go out, there is a nip in the air – after midges were recorded for the first time in December, a month which is among the warmest on record.

The world’s leading expert on midges said that,ys if the warm temperatures were to continue, they could still be around for some time yet.

Dr Alison Blackwell admitted she was “very surprised” that midges were still about.

The female highland biting midge (Culicoides impunctatus) needs a blood meal to fully develop her eggs.

Dr Blackwell, who has runs the Scottish midge forecast service, said it was the first time the pest had been recorded this month.

They normally disappear by the end of September and the larvae is buried deep in the soil as it hibernates during the winter months.

But Dr Blackwell said the biting beastie had been reported in indoors on farm buildings in Glencoe - normally one of the summer meccas of the insect.

It follows on from an unusual third and later swarm of midges this year.

Autumn’s warm weather produced a rare third hatching of biting midges.

Dr Blackwell said it appears as a result “a few stragglers” had made it through to December.

“It is very unusual, in fact I have never come across it before – but we would appeal to people who come across them at this time of year to contact us as it is important information for our research,” she said.

“Our trapping for the midge forecast ended many weeks ago. But we have now had anecdotal accounts of midges inside farm buildings in Glencoe.

“We think it is related to the late third hatch who have then encountered unseasonally warm weather. It probably feels like spring to them.

“Instead of dying out in September or October as usual, a few stragglers of the later hatch have kept going into winter.”