It’s always the slightly gruesome ecologies that best capture the kids’ attention, so what good luck that almost the first hunter back to last week’s annual Nunhead Cemetery Open Day Bug Hunt stall had found a dung fly with its hapless prey.
Dung fly, Scathophaga stercoraria, with muscid victim.
This one was doubly pleasing because of the scatological habits of its larvae. It breeds in ….. Incidentally, never use the word ‘poo’ unless you are talking to primary school children. It’s undignified, and when speaking about dung, excrement, or faeces, you generally need all the dignity you can muster.
Not that dignity is something I worry about too much on the Bug Hunt.
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- Lots of cardinal beetles.
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- The biggest spider of the day.
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- Lillian hates wasps, but she’s happy to have Dorcus, the lesser stag beetle, claw its way over her hand.
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- Almost certainly a centipede trying to bite me.
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- As usual Lillian wrote out the certificates.
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- They’re all looking at something weird, or horrible.
Richard Jones
Bugman Jones 
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