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Last week, Butterfly Conservation published a report called The State of Britain's Larger Moths 2013. It makes a depressing read, demonstrating a marked decline in the number of our larger moths over the last 40 years. The survey, conducted

. Like long-tailed tits, goldcrests eat insects and spiders, but specialise in tiny morsels such as moth eggs. Their beaks are designed to pick out insects from between pine needles. In really cold winters they will occasionally come to garden feeders, so keep

warning of ‘conservation concern’. These types of decline have already been seen in more obvious (and more newsworthy) insects, such as bumblebees, butterflies and moths.One thing is clear to me though - as the industrialisation of agriculture continues

, and the foliage could support a variety of moths. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that it would eventually be colonised by mistletoe. The native crab apple species is Malus sylvestris, but there are plenty of non-natives and cultivars available