Large, rare longhorn beetle

I have just found out that my friend Dave Monk took a splendid photo of the Red Data Book 3 longhorn beetle Mesosa nebulosa in Brede High Woods last July.

This is the first record of this species in Sussex and it shows how important these woods are for invertebrates.

M. nebulosa does not visit flowers and often remains high in the canopy, so it is rarely recorded. The larvae bore into the cambium and later the sapwood of various trees.