Warming brings southern insects north to UK — SkimNews
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- Matt Phelps and entomologist Graeme Lyons made the first UK identification of a Verge cricket (Eumodicogryllus bordigalensis) at Knepp Estate, West Sussex in July, with the wave coinciding with enormous wildfires in Bordeaux.
- Jackie Harmer, a retired secretary from North Cheshire in her first week of moth-trapping, found an Odice pergrata moth native to the Iberian peninsula — a first for the UK.
- David Cousins, a city trader in north Essex, opened his moth box to find an Enolmis acanthella — described as "a completely undiscovered genus in Britain," native to north Africa and southern Europe.
- Olly McKeown, 18, in Truro, discovered the UK mainland's first breeding praying mantises without leaving his room; the Cornwall Wildlife Trust later confirmed multiple breeding sites, including older reports from the New Forest.
- Harry Witts of the Essex Wildlife Trust identified a blue slender-winged grasshopper (Sphingonotus caerulans) at Colne Point in July — believed to be its first natural arrival on the mainland — and days later, with colleague Joss Carr, found a big-eyed bug (Geocoris megacephalus) on driftwood.
- Liam Crowley, an Oxford University entomologist and fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, attributed the shifts primarily to warming but noted habitat restoration and post-ice-age dynamics also play roles, calling it a "bumper year" for migrating hummingbird hawk moths, painted lady butterflies, and clouded yellow butterflies.
Why it matters: The wave of new insect arrivals — documented by both amateurs and professionals across England — provides concrete, observable evidence of climate-driven range shifts already underway, with the Cornwall Wildlife Trust confirming established praying mantis breeding populations on the UK mainland for the first time. Ecologists note that while most arrivals will integrate into existing ecosystems without disruption, Phelps cautioned that a few may out-compete native species.
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