Hummingbird hawk moths boom in warming West Midlands — SkimNews
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- Hummingbird hawk moths had a "record year" for sightings in 2026 across the West Midlands, according to the Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust, after normally arriving only in small numbers from southern Europe and North Africa.
- Ivy bees, first recorded in the UK in 2001 and in Stourbridge in 2015, have become more prevalent in the Midlands and feed mainly on ivy flower nectar, often spotted on buildings.
- Wasp spiders were recently recorded in Worcestershire, Herefordshire, and Warwickshire — more than 100 miles north of their usual habitat — as warming temperatures extend their range.
- Hornet hoverflies have become "really common" in Birmingham and the Black Country since first being recorded there in 2004, while cricket bat spiders, first spotted regionally in 2019, are increasingly found in the same areas.
- Clouded yellow butterflies, a European migratory species whose British population normally dies off in winter, could become permanent UK residents if temperatures keep rising, the trust said.
- Not all insects are winners — the once-common small tortoiseshell butterfly is now rarely seen, and two-spot ladybird records have sharply declined, prompting the Wyre Forest Study Group to ask the public to record today's common species before they become tomorrow's rarities.
Why it matters: The West Midlands is functioning as a live barometer of climate-driven range shifts: species absent 20 years ago — ivy bees, hornet hoverflies, wasp spiders — are now abundant, while familiar natives like the small tortoiseshell and two-spot ladybird are quietly vanishing from the same gardens. Rosemaryinnall's call to record common species because they 'may be the rarities of the future' reframes the warming trend as an exchange, not a simple gain.
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