Sock sales raise funds to help protect bumblebees

Image caption, Actress Tamsin Egerton wearing the bumblebee socks

Sales of striped socks have raised about 拢5,000 to help protect some of Britain's rarest insects.

The Stirling University-based Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BCT) is among charities being supported by an internet shopping website's appeal.

Profits from the sales of footwear modelled on MandMDirect.com's site by actress Tamsin Egerton is going to the trust.

Bumblebees under threat include the great yellow found in the Highlands.

Once widespread, its numbers declined in the face of intensive farming and has clung to survival on Orkney and the Western Isles.

The far north Highlands are home to the last mainland population.

In February, a project involving the trust was named the winner of a 拢25,000 conservation prize.

It is hoped the scheme to enhance the wildflower habitat near Castlemartin, Pembrokeshire, will help to establish a colony of shrill carder bees.

The project was chosen as the winner in an online vote from a shortlist of six UK initiatives.