Driven by rising global temperatures, a surge of southern European and continental insects—including Verge crickets, and breeding praying mantises—has arrived on UK shores this summer, marking an extraordinary flood of first sightings that experts attribute to a rapidly warming climate.
Verge Crickets and Wildfires in Southern Europe
It was a stifling evening in July when Knepp Estate ecologist Matt Phelps heard an unfamiliar, piercing sound during a stroll in West Sussex. Describing it as like the classic sound effect of a cricket in a film, a beeping sort of little trilling sound,
Phelps enlisted entomologist Graeme Lyons to track down the noise. After three hours of searching in the dark, they discovered the source was literally beneath the ground in a crack of parched clay. It marked the first identification of a Verge, or Bordeaux, cricket (
When the discovery was announced, reports of the same species flooded in. Phelps noted that the wave of arrivals coincided with an enormous wildfire in Bordeaux, raising questions about whether the insects had fled the flames of southern Europe.
Moth Discoveries from Cheshire to Essex
Professional ecologists are not the only ones unearthing new arrivals. Jackie Harmer, a retired secretary living in North Cheshire, was only one week into moth-trapping as a new hobby when she found
In north Essex, city trader and night-time moth collector David Cousins opened his trap one June dawn to find a white moth featuring bluish markings. The specimen proved to be a spotted seal moth (
Breeding Praying Mantises in Cornwall and Beyond
Eighteen-year-old Olly McKeown discovered the UK mainland’s first breeding praying mantises without even leaving his room in Truro. While doing table work in August, he spotted one crawling across his computer keyboard, another on top of a chair, and eventually loads more across tables, chairs, and walls.
Experts later noted that McKeown’s sighting had been trumped by earlier reports from locations such as the New Forest. According to the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, experts now agree that the species has likely bred across a few sites.
Mantises possess a distinct evolutionary advantage when hunting: they are the only insects capable of turning their heads from side to side without moving the rest of their bodies, enabling minimal movement while sneaking up on prey.
A Bumper Year for Migrating Insects and Warming Climates
Liam Crowley, an entomologist at Oxford University and fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, explained that the simplest explanation for these shifts is that the world is warming up and insects are moving northwards. However, Crowley cautioned that multiple dynamics are at play, noting that insects inhabiting the UK a century ago may have gone locally extinct due to habitat destruction—only to return now as nature is restored or if climate pressures make the UK a viable option. Some arrivals may even trace back to events unfolding since the ice age ended 11,700 years ago.
This summer also brought an explosion of migrating insects. Trillions arrive in the UK annually, flying high into air streams from the continent and northern Africa for a natural lift. Record-breaking heat turned this season into an especially bumper year for migrating species, with noticeable surges in hummingbird hawk moths, hoverflies, cicadas, striped hawkmoths, painted lady butterflies, and clouded yellow butterflies.
Some of these species are starting to breed and establish and potentially survive through the winter in the south,
Crowley said.
