We missed the Nunhead Cemetery Open Day in 2017 — we were told it must not happen again. So this year we made our come-back.
The photo-shoot before the usual mad rush. Please note the insect-themed cowichan-style jumper I’m sporting — that’s a minotaur beetle and a stag beetle you can just make out on the front.
You’ll notice the hornet on my back. And what’re they near my neck? Neck-biting deer flies, Chrysops, obvs.
Lillian was in charge of putting together the display boards, which featured a selection of Extreme Insects spreads, some gate-fold identification guides to popular groups, and various show-off book covers.
Featuring the all-new displays, plastic bug toys, bug-bunting and bags of large pebbles to stop the gazebo blowing about.
And on they came. We reckoned on something like 200 visitors. Cardinal beetles, Pyrochroa serraticornis, were frequent finds, as were Lithobius centipedes (none bit me this time), the usual woodlice (four species), the scarce brown tree ant, Lasius brunneus, and then this lovely….
By the end of the day you can tell I’ve had a good time by the grubbiness of my fingers. A false widow spider, Steatoda nobilis. And no, Daily Mail, of course it did not bite me, what a notion!
Everyone left clutching their precious certificate.
Richard Jones
Bugman Jones 
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