An endangered species of Korean longhorned beetle may be taking its first step on its way to recovery, after conservationists cultivated its larva and reintroduced it into the wild ten months ago.

The environment ministry's Wonju regional office on Monday confirmed the larva turned into an eight-and-a-half centimeter-long imago.

The larva was produced through artificial cultivation and put into a Mongolian oak in September last year at the Mount Odae National Park in Gangwon Province. 

Longhorned beetles, registered as South Korea’s Natural Monument No. 218, are effectively extinct in the wild since they were last found in 2006 in Gwangneung, Gyeonngi Province.

The country has sought to restore the species since 2009.