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. The speckled wood is a slim elegant creature, with large broad brown wings, and yet the squat green pupa under the frisbee looked wholly other.The speckled wood is unique amongst British butterflies in that it regularly overwinters in both caterpillar

fluttered in and deposited eggs. These hatched into caterpillars, which then proceeded to demolish the cabbages. (For future reference this is best avoided by covering the developing cabbages with horticultural fleece, through which the butterflies cannot

the bumblebee nest and hangs around outside for a few days to pick up its scent. Once she has done this, she enters the nest undetected to lay her eggs. These hatch into caterpillars, which start off by eating the nest debris before moving to the wax pots

year, they’re as regular as clockwork.The birds usually arrive in the first week of May, and carry out a recce of the garden to make sure it can still meet their needs (i.e. that it has a good supply of caterpillars and sunflower hearts). Then I see one

growth. Check the pots daily.clematis, dahlias, chrysanthemums and other plantsspring, summer, autumnMore common garden pestsWaspsSlugsAntsCaterpillars

-chewing garden pestsSlugsCaterpillarsEarwigsRosemary leaf beetle

, but with its obvious pale cream coloration it was fooling no one.We usually get two sawflies laying their eggs. Arge pagana is the pale speckled caterpillar that skeletonises whole branches, while Blennocampa phyllocolpa is the small green leaf

for Ornithology (BTO) research suggests it could be related to the changing nesting behaviour of its hosts, plus a decline of available food (caterpillars). Cuckoos usually lay their eggs in the nests of dunnocks, meadow pipits, pied wagtails and reed warblers

Whilst out running in Peckham Rye Park earlier this week I noticed that the leaves of the horse chestnut trees are starting to show pale brown blotching all over. These are caused by the caterpillars of a minute moth, Cameraria ohridella - the horse

aphids on my pyracanthas, which are dealt with by a strong jet of water, and stripy mullein caterpillars on verbascum, which are easy to pick off.I mention all this because I came across a very ancient shed the other day with many of the original