Shifting Sands

Buglife’s surveys in September 2020 produced some truly fantastic results, with a UK record of 219 individual Wormwood Moonshiners counted on one evening! This was in their current stronghold on a County Wildlife Site in a Mildenhall housing estate. This population was unknown until a few years previous to this project beginning, when Field Wormwood plants were discovered, but the site is now being better managed, with the knock-on effect of this beetle thriving.

Fascinatingly, we also discovered that a third of these beetles were feeding on nearby Yarrow plants! The beetles have been found on Yarrow in the past, but never in such numbers, which suggests that although Field Wormwood might be their favoured plant, they will happily feed on Yarrow while the wormwood seed ripens. Excitingly, we also re-discovered the Wormwood Moonshiner on the verges of an industrial estate in Brandon. This site is adjacent to a postage stamp sized industrial estate SSSI that was once the stronghold for the species but has since deteriorated.

Thanks to the Shifting Sands project, this is being better managed and the verges in the estate are now a County Wildlife Site with reduced mowing. An impressive 26 Wormwood Moonshiners were found on the site, with 21 of them recorded on Yarrow scattered around the estate. We have yet to re-find the beetle on the SSSI itself, but it is clear that the beetle is bouncing back, with local businesses welcoming the benefits of simply letting their verges grow to the benefit of bugs and plants!