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The loose bark on old logs is one of the most important hibernating sites for all manner of insects. Here they can remain sheltered from predators, and also from their main enemies during winter: frost and damp. This week they will be sorely tested

No, it’s not quite time for hibernation yet. Just a bit of sun in the garden and all kinds of intriguing insects are out again. I thought maybe I’d seen the last of this year’s hoverflies, but a drowsy marmalade fly, Episyrphus balteatus

. Then: a comma.Polygonia c-album is perfectly named for its many-angled raggedy wing edge. During its hibernation sojourn it is invisible; wings held tight together its dark mottled underside resembles so closely a torn dead leaf as it sits motionless

actually), which presumably climbed back into the water after a dry, under-log hibernation, during that brief sunny spell at the beginning of the month.The seasonal cycling of weather, day length, and temperature, may seem pretty extreme to modern humans

predators in the garden and they attack all manner of real pests including caterpillars, aphids and flies. They feed the chewed remains to their grubs back at the nest. The last five years have been really bad for wasps; either the hibernating queens have

with buzzing insects. I know the village is slightly nearer the equator than still-hibernating East Dulwich, but this was ridiculous.Dozens of honeybees were bobbing about on the flowers, together with their hoverfly mimics, droneflies (Eristalis tenax

hibernation now are mostly green, but the summer form has vague reddish brown patches across its back. It too has a slight smell of mouldy almonds, especially if picked up; these are the bitter-tasting cyanide compounds used by shieldbugs to deter predators

months hidden in hibernation in some dry secluded spot, the queens, with a store of sperm from autumn matings, venture out to an uncertain spring weather pattern, which is as unpredictable as any of the many other dangers they face from predators, disease

 (except that woodpecker), my compost microcosm is in hibernation torpor at the moment. But I know things will burst open again in spring. Tucked into the overlapping featheredge of the lid are several untidy silk igloos. These are the egg-sacs of the spiders that inhabit

' appearance in life.The snow has gone completely now, and I take these latent packages as a good sign that spring is coming. Most hoverflies overwinter as larvae, only pupating in spring when they arouse from hibernation torper. I'll let you know when I see