Species to look out for now

There were three quite widely spaced local records last night of Oak Rustic Dryobota labecula, from Marlow and Westcott in Bucks (firsts for VC24) and from Garsington in Oxon.  Its first recorded appearance in our area was at Reading, Berks in November 2015 and that's only five seasons ago, suggesting that dispersal northwards could be moving at quite a pace.  With records now from all three vice-counties, anywhere in our area could come up trumps with this species so please give it a try.

The other one to keep an eye out for is Black-spotted Chestnut Conistra rubiginosa which sneaked into the far south-east of our region last winter with a single sighting at Denham, Bucks.  There have already been four records of it in Bedfordshire over the past week so anywhere along our eastern flank, including the Milton Keynes area, could be a possibility.

Good luck!