Southampton Old Cemetery – 20th September 2026

This was a pleasant sunny September afternoon insect walk around the old cemetery by the Common. There were five of us – four ladies and myself (Phil Budd) present. Using our eyes, close focusing binoculars, a sweep net and a beating tray we discovered quite an assortment of beasties. The highlights included the jumping spider Ballus chalybeius, box and juniper shield bugs, a fruit fly – genus Tephritis, several small copper butterflies, a blue carpenter bee on scabious, several ivy mining bees, and leaf mines such as those of the fly Agromyza demeijerei (pictured). Not a fungus in site though and some trees killed by the summer drought.