About the event

The first half of the talk will be about the new Bloomsbury Field Guide to the Grasshoppers and Allies of Great Britain and Ireland*, including the crickets, cockroaches and mantises, stick-insects, and earwigs. This is the first comprehensive review of this group since Marshall and Haes was published in 1987 and many of the extraordinary changes, including a host of newly naturalised species including the Blue-winged Grasshopper and the Praying Mantis, will be discussed.

The second part of the talk will be about a book that, when completed, will be published by the BNHS: The Natural History of the Flit Valley, which highlights the importance of some of the very special species (e.g. Purple Emperor, Great Crested Newt, Golden-bloomed Longhorn Beetle) and habitats (e.g. Flitwick Moor, Cooper's Hill, Maulden Wood, Wrest Park) that may be found on either side of its 17km course between Chalton and Shefford.

*Signed copies will be available for sale at a reasonably discounted price: £26 for the softback which normally retails at £40, and £40 for the hardback which normally retails at £60.