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If today were April 1st, you might be forgiven for thinking this story was a hoax. After all, children once fooled Arthur Conan Doyle into thinking they had really been playing with fairies way back in 1917.

However, it appears to be true this time – two children really have found pink grasshoppers in Norfolk this week.

Noah Battelley and Meg Willis, both seven and keen hunters of minibeasts, had been out exploring Dersingham Fen when they made the remarkable discovery.

There, nestling in the grass close to the area that was devastated by fire just three months ago, sat not one but two of the creatures in a very fetching shade of fuchsia.

"We kept them because Noah was having a sleepover at my house. I've got a bug hunting kit with a little jar and when Noah's mum came to over to pick Noah up, they took one with them," explained Meg.

Buglife member Matt Shardlow said it was surprising that the youngsters had stumbled upon two examples of what amounts to a genetic abnormality.

"For some reason you get some which are pink, where they'd normally be green or brown. In terms of percentage, it's a tiny proportion of the number of grasshoppers – less than one per cent," he commented.

The expert explained that there seems to be no evolutionary advantage that grasshoppers would gain from being pink, so it is unlikely that this would ever become the norm.

It's been a good week for insects – a new species of butterfly called the Cryptic Wood White was recently discovered flying around in Northern Ireland.

At first it was thought that the creature was an ordinary Wood White, but further investigation revealed it to be a 70,000-year-old species that has never been documented before.

"We are going to have to rewrite the butterfly books," said Martin Warren from Butterfly Conservation.

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