On 21st November 2018 I found a dead picture-winged fly on the kitchen windowsill in Bolton le Sands (VC60). It was quickly identified as a male Tephritis praecox (Tephritidae). There are very few UK records… Read more »
North West Invertebrates Blog
Speckled Bush-cricket: 2nd Sefton Coast Locality Discovered
On 24th August 2018 while sweep-netting for shieldbugs at Falklands Way, Ainsdale, Phil Smith netted two male Speckled Bush-crickets (Leptophyes punctatissima) from a Wild Privet bush near to back gardens at SD303116. According to Phil,… Read more »
Day of the Limnephilids
Most large insects are inactive over winter. An exception are larvae of the caddis family Limnephilidae. They eat dead leaves that fall into freshwaters and that resource is at its peak over winter; many also… Read more »
Survey for one rare spider on NW mosses turns up four even rarer arachnids
The Nationally Rare and Near Threatened Sphagnum bog jumping spider, Sitticus floricola has been the subject of a Tanyptera Project commissioned survey to better understand its current status and distribution in a UK stronghold, the… Read more »
‘Possibly Extinct’ UK dung beetle rediscovered on the Sefton Coast after 21 years
After two decades with no records, experts had feared that a rare diminutive scarab beetle Aphodius brevis had become extinct from our shores (Lane & Mann, 2016). In the UK, it’s only ever been known… Read more »
