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, and my brain just could not cope with the notion that a woodpecker could be up there.I now know (I've looked it up in books) that these glorious birds are after insects in the turf, as well as dead wood, and that ants are a firm favourite. So I

to examine individual bristles on individual legs. So it's no surprise that my key to Drosphila fruit flies is very keen on the number of hairs of the insect's thorax, the colour of its knees and the presence or absence of spurs on its back legs.I must admit

the bees making their cuts with such speed and precision.Despite the depredations of all these insects, the rose goes from strength to strength and gives a drift of hearty flowers each summer.

small picture-winged fly, Rhagoletis meigenii (pictured above), in London's Battersea Park in June 2000. At the time this pretty little insect was thought to feed on the native Berberis vulgaris, but was believed to be extinct in Britain, having been

. This is the usual time I see stag beetles flying, and how lucky I feel to use that word 'usual'. For me, stag beetles are a regular event, every year. But I wonder for how much longer.Here in south-east London, stag beetles are garden insects. They also occur

on the broad leaves, Fallopia is more or less sterile when it comes to wildlife. But this may be about to change. I notice that there are rumours of importing a small but pretty Japanese insect, the psyllid bug Aphalara idatori, to try and control the knotweed

down to the presence or absence of a few black hairs amongst the orange on the thorax and abdomen. This requires some means of restraining the insect and a magnifying glass at least.They also talk of B. muscorum having a denser, more even pelt than its

and dragonflies, with many flying well into October and November, but without that sudden change to wetter weather at the end of September, many late-season insects (and fungi) fail to thrive.This happened a few years ago, when August dry crept into September

nymphs (or sometimes naiads in North America), and they must be amongst the ugliest insects to be found.Unlike their elegant, brightly coloured, glittering adult stages, dragonfly nymphs are stout and drab - perfectly adapted to life in the gloomy murk

(3-4mm) narrow woodworm weevil, Euophryum confine. There seems to be no common English name for this insect, other than ‘wood weevil’, even though it is one of the commonest domestic woodworms in the country. Perhaps this is because it was only found