gobirding.eu Mothing Diary: Review of 2019 and 2020

Wednesday, 28 April 2021

Review of 2019 and 2020 - Heteropteran Bugs

HETEROPTERAN BUGS (HEMIPTERA: HETEROPTERA)

The order Hemiptera is split into sub-orders - in this section I shall just deal with Heteroptera; I'll deal with Auchenorrhyncha (leafhoppers and allies) and Sternorrhyncha (Aphids, Whiteflies, Scale Insects and Psyllids) later.

My interest in bugs was piqued when I caught an unfamiliar and unremarkable-looking bug in my moth trap in Cornwall in October 2014. Given the site and conditions (on the far SW coast in strong southerly winds) and the species of moths caught (high proportion of migrants) I thought it might be worth trying to find out what the bug was. I figured out that it was a Damsel Bug (Nabidae), a family with several very common representatives, none of which I had ever previously knowingly seen or identified, but couldn't find a match. I asked Tristan Bantock who asked me to send it to him and subsequently confirmed that it was Nabis capsiformis, and the first record for Britain!

Since then I've been slowly increasing my efforts with this group and am now at least attempting to identify every bug I come across (mostly in the moth trap, but picking up a few more by a little light sweeeping here and there). I'm grateful to Tristan not only for the initial introduction but for occasional help via Twitter and for pointing me to some great resources, not least his (and Joe Botting's) hugely impressive British Bugs website which I must now use hundreds of times every year.

The bugs section of this review covers 12 pages - if you want to look through them all then start here and follow the "Next page" links at the bottom of each page to move through. Alternatively you can use the hyperlinks (orange text) below to jump straight to the families you're interested in. For many other groups in this wildlife review I've included "nil returns" for species that ought to occur here but I didn't record in 2019-20. With bugs I haven't yet developed a good enough understanding of the local status of the various species to be able to do this, but I have included mention of all the species that I have personally recorded here and at the meadows in previous years.

I always welcome feedback, especially if any errors have crept in. Please get in touch if you think anything needs looking at again, or if you can clear up any of the unanswered questions.