The Times They Are A-Changin'

Posted by Graeme Lyons , Friday, 28 August 2026 12:10

16:04 - Harry Witts: "I don't think I would ever recognise a grasshopper new to Britain".

16:07 - Harry Witts: "GRAEME! Bring a big net! I think I have a new grasshopper!"


So yeah, here's Sphingonotus caerulans Slender Blue-winged Grasshopper - photographed by Joss Carr. It's very likely the first record of this species to naturally arrive on our shores. So how on Earth did I find myself in such a position not a month after the Verge Cricket madness?

Well, this story isn't about me, it's about the fantastic contingent of Gen Z naturalists who are making big waves in the British natural history world - many of whom are doing so using the pan-species listing approach to natural history. Two such naturalists are Harry Witts and Joss Carr. In the last couple of years, Harry has come out and shadowed me on a few different surveys in Kent and Sussex and this summer Joss has set up some fantastic PSL field meetings in London, many of which I have attended and enjoyed - they are both smashing it! PSLers are (in most parts) a sociable bunch. As I have said for years, it's not really competitive, it's collaborative and we all learn from each other. Pushing each other up not down. PSL is all about breaking down barriers and shoving gatekeeping into the history books. I always had this belief that if I had started PSLing in my teens, it would have fast-tracked me into being a more knowledgeable naturalist at an earlier age. It genuinely does just that, and now there is a growing number of super-capable young naturalists out there, many of which I hope will end up working in the conservation sector and many who already are.

After coming out with me for the day at Blean in April, Harry offered to return the favour by spending a weekend in Essex in August. Harry also invited Joss Carr, as not two weeks earlier they had had a brilliant day out at our destination - Colne Point, even finding Geocoris megacephalus new to Britain there (I had this bug new to Jersey in 2024). This is a coastal SSSI managed by Essex Wildlife Trust.

Colne Point is a sensitive site, with Harry arranging access to survey it through his work. It's pretty dangerous too, you can easily get cut off an a really high tide if you are not careful.

Of course, I wanted some lifers (I was hoping for Ground Lackey in the evening) but was also keen to get some year ticks for the 6000 Species Challenge. Dittander, Golden-samphire, Hog's Fennel and Shrubby Sea-blite  were all year-ticked from the car! The first invert of the day was Clouded Yellow. Literally anything could happen...and it did.

First lifer of the day was the tiny picture wing Myopites eximia. This fly galls Golden-samphire.



And in the same first sweep, the first of many of the saltmarsh form of Rhysodromus histrio. This weirdly yellow form is incredibly different to the heathland one, I am amazed it's not a different species. Much less contrasting but clearly the same shape.


The first vac had this metallic purple beauty in it! The sea-lavender feeding Pseudaplimonus limonii. I rarely see this weevil as we have so little saltmarsh in Sussex. So little in fact, that I was getting year tick after year tick.



I got another lifer in the form of the long overdue Dun Sentinel Assiminea grayana! It seems to be really common on saltmarsh on the Thames Gateway and Essex coasts, despite being Nationally Scarce. Pleasingly proportioned.



Joss was on fine form with hoppers as per usual and has found some really significant county firsts there. As we headed to the shingle, I spotted a very large bee fly, which we think has to be Dune Villa Villa modesta. Here's one of Harry's record shots before we missed it with our nets. That's another long overdue lifer for me.



By the time we hit the shingle, Geocoris megacephalus was pretty much the commonest insect! Around this time Harry pulled two immature Heliophanus from his pocket he'd found on a previous visit. The abdomens were covered in golden and copper-coloured hairs but with no white spots. Harry thought they were likely Heliophanus auratus and I was inclined to agree. We knelt down and almost immediately Harry spotted an adult male Heliophanus running around on the shingle. I got hold of it and was happy to confirm this as an adult male Heliophanus auratus! My 565th spider in the British Isles. Here's the adult male, the legs are tri-coloured, while the abdomen is covered in dense shiny hairs that gives it a very distinct appearance. I went on to sieve another from Marram nearby but we didn't get any in the sucker. 


Here's those two incredible immatures.


I also recorded Zelotes longipes - my first away from Jersey!

It's now 16:04 and things are about to get interesting.

I leg it over to where Harry is just 10 m away and he soon gets me on to an unusual orthopteran. There is talk of blue wings but the animal I am looking at looks nothing like the Blue-winged Grasshoppers Oedipoda caeruelscens I know well from Jersey. Smaller, slimmer, less contrasty, differently-coloured and with seemingly proportionally longer wings. I have a good side view with my close focus bins and the thing that struck me was the constricted neck and raised head. I think I exclaimed "It looks like a locust!".

Here's Harry's shots taken at a safe distance. This really captures the moment for me.

Quite hard to spot, isn't it? Until it flies!

I heavily cropped Harry's shot here to show the view I had through my bins, showing that oddly-positioned head.

I attempted to get it in the net but it crawled out from under it and flew. Long-winged but with very pale blue (almost white) hindwings. Again, quite unlike Blue-winged Grasshopper. It also flew quite some distance for a grasshopper, but we sprinted after it relocating it almost instantly among the shingle. I wish someone could have filmed it, it felt like comedy gold as we 'moved as one' as Harry described it. I soon had my hands on it and transferred it to the dirtiest pot in the entomological world - at least we were not going to lose it now and could get some record shots of that hind wing indoors.

I was utterly convinced this was some other species of grasshopper with blue wings. Joss had found a candidate on his phone, read out the differences and tracked down a 2024 record on the Eurostar tracks at Folkstone on iNaturalist before I had even unlocked my phone (how do Gen Z work their phones so quickly?). Anyways, I was pretty sure we had nailed the ID with Sphingonotus careulans. I called Peter Sutton up straight away. As if all the Verge Cricket/Praying Mantis/Blue-winged Grasshopper madness wasn't enough!

The next day, Joss got a shot of the hind wing and the lovely shot at the top of this post. Soon after Peter Sutton confirmed our ID was correct.


And here's me, Joss and Harry enjoying the sunset as we wait to do a bit of dusking.


I spotted this Ray's Knotgrass on the beach.


Harry found Armadillidium album under some logs. He was on fire!


Dusking wasn't the greatest but we did see lots of Sandhill Rustics, which I have not seen since before Joss was born.


And then we called in on the way back to look for Agonopterix putridella - which Harry spotted! A super-rare micro that only feeds on Hog's Fennel! What a day. Utterly unforgettable.



Time for Bob Dylan to provide the sound track for my pensive conclusion...

Our invertebrate fauna becomes more continental by the day, mostly down to man-made climate change, with species colonising our shores almost as fast we can write them down. Furthermore, that rate of change is increasing, it's as if we are heading towards an 'entomological singularity' if you will. This leads me to a state of cognitive dissonance, where I feel both joy and terror simultaneously at seeing these novel species. I want both more of them AND less of them. It's vital that we record them though. So lots of keen eyes on the ground is essential in all of this.

However, the great news is, I think that the young PSLers are doing a great job at carrying the torch of natural history, biological recording and wildlife conservation into the uncertain future that awaits us all. They're not just brilliant naturalists for their age - they're brilliant naturalists period! I don't just go out with them to show them stuff, I go out with them as I know they'll get me a load of lifers too! I absolutely love being shown things by people decades younger than me. It's great fun seeing PSL thriving in this way.

If you want to get into PSL, it's totally free and you can sign up here www.panspecieslisting.com

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