Search - Articles

that there are so many UK travellers roaring over the continent. And it is no surprise to discover ‘new’ European mainland insects arriving back with them into Britain.The rosemary leaf beetle, Chrysolina americana, was first found in the UK in a Kitchen in Disley

Friday, Saturday and Sunday just past were fabulous, and as the sun burned down it was a thrill to see so many insects still about. A very late speckled wood butterfly was fluttering about the allotment, along with a last few large whites. A huge

been chewed.My interest in dead sycamores is in the insects associated with them. There are a whole series of rare beetles that feed on the black soot-like spores of the fungus. The largest is a whopping 4.5 mm long. Next time I pass I'll have to make

and partly blown away. It'll certainly keep the rain out.On Sunday I'm down to the last few handfuls of muddy silt in the deep end. I'd been sieving the last few bucket loads and the overwintering insect larvae were coming out thick and fast. In virtually

're such pretty insects too, with their metallic domed bodies, coloured golden/brassy with contrasting reddish stripes.This beetle has a curious history in Britain. It was first found here in 1963, crawling about in a kitchen in Disley, Cheshire. The conclusion

in there. There are no skaters. They were usually the first insects to arrive and we used to have a squadron of them zooming over the surface. This bunch took advantage of a drowning spider. And there are no boatmen or beetles yet either. But Saturday saw

it is delightfully marked, with coloured scales all over. More secretive than scarce, I think, it is usually regarded by entomologists as a rare insect, but in London it is on all black poplars, except for the Lombary poplar, 'Italica'. It must spend most of the year

'm not sure if I have any pictures of the momentous day itself, but I have plenty of images of insects taken near the house during the build-up.In the early 1990s land was cheap in central Florida, after severe frosts killed thousands of acres of orange groves

in the moist soil is a wireworm. I know these are supposed to be notorious garden and agricultural pests, but like so many insects, I can't really treat them as pests unless they reach pest proportions. A few of last year's potatoes had small holes in them

the bird's recent success down to the possibility that it has adapted to eating seeds and peanuts on bird tables and garden feeders. Normally it is mainly an insect feeder. This is obviously good news for the bird, and for the RSPB, which actively advocates