Bugs threaten Italian chestnuts

Sweet chestnuts are a key part of Italy's rural and culinary history

Alarm is growing in Tuscany, one of Italy's top tourist destinations, after the arrival of a possibly devastating threat to the region's chestnut trees.

A Chinese insect, which has previously appeared further south near the capital Rome, is now attacking some of the country's finest chestnut forests.

The 2.5cm-long gall wasp has a black body and yellow legs.

Experts say they can eat as much as 80% of a large chestnut tree's fruit. The bug is also difficult to eradicate.

The BBC's Mark Duff in Milan says the chestnut has almost totemic significance in the rural and culinary history of Italy.

For centuries it meant the difference between life and death for poor peasants with little else to eat, our correspondent says.

Confirmation of its nutritious properties came last week when a walker who spent 12 days lost in the Tuscan hills told rescuers he had survived on a combination of river water and chestnuts.