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and Their Haunts by the Rev. C.A. Johns, was published in 1862 by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, on the back of his success with Flowers of the Field (1851). Both books were in print for over a century, and it's easy to see why.To start, Johns

(former Yugoslavia), in the late 1970s, but was not identified until 1986. It has been spreading through Europe until it arrived here in 2002. No one knows quite where it came from, though there are several members of the genus in North America. There is a

Walking back from the Horniman Museum last week took me past a large oaktree growing just inside a front garden. The tree looks like an old pollardand must pre-date the early 20th century houses hereabouts. What caught myattention were all

animals are transient, they come, they go; but wild plants ... they come, they stay, they get in the way, they interfere, and they compete with the flowers and vegetables we choose to grow. I think this attitude to 'weeds' is grossly unfair, so here

of this will be laced with old lime mortar.This isn't the first time I've seen pyramidals hereabouts. Three years ago I found a lone spire growing from the lawn of the local church, St Clement with St Peter. The present church was built in the early 1950s. The original

eating and growing until just large enough to transform into the fleeting adult.Although I find them regularly, I've never seen vapourer caterpillars in any great numbers, but according to several of my moth books they can occasionally be so numerous

150 years. It feeds on the fruits, using its stylet mouthparts to suck out the juices, in autumn moving to the berries of yew, which also grows profusely on the chalk downs.However, during the 1990s Gonocerus was found, first, at Bookham Common

interpretation scheme. There are a large variety of native and exotic trees, most of which I recognize, but there are a couple of oddities I'm going to have to do some research on.One of the most surprising finds is a large sprig of mistletoe growing on a broad

gardens are even more wild and overgrown. Since my main interest is in insects, these are obviously going to feature pretty heavily here, but we also get our fair share of birds and beasts through too. A few days ago I noticed that the lilies growing in a

When the swifts first returned on May 2nd there were only three or four of them. Last year we had a huge gang of about 15, wheeling in the sky and screaming down the street at top speed, just above the lamp-posts. I always take these wonderfully