Search - Articles

the camouflaged hind wings. If disturbed they'll flick up the front-wing eye spots in an attempt to startle a would-be predator, before taking flight as a final resort.The gatekeeper is a very common butterfly, but I hardly ever saw it when I lived in Nunhead

this late in the year the dung-flies are ready to recycle. The adult flies, although only 7-10 mm long, are fierce predators, attacking other small insects they catch on the wing. Unlike houseflies, they do not come indoors, are not attracted to human food

at the bottom of lakes, ponds and streams. I'd always imagined them as patient sit-and-wait pouncing predators. They have a bizarre hinged jaw mechanism, with the claw-like biting mouthparts perched on the end of an extending articulated proboscis, like an extra

-east London, 25 years ago, and discovered so many urban foxes here, I often wondered whether they posed a threat to our cats. It did not take me long to work out that foxes, like most predators, are cowards, and despite the obvious size difference, they would

, is that the longer the maggot waits before turning into a beetle, the more likely it is to be disturbed by someone removing the timber, or to fall victim to predator, parasite or disease. The adult beetle may appear bold and imposing, but the larva, even a big one

working alone. As well as cautious humans removing them from allotment sheds, the nests are also prone to flooding, mould and disturbance from predators. The queen will have to look elsewhere for another suitable site. With luck she will now find a hollow

their ability to suddenly flex thorax and abdomen, jerking themselves into an airborne tumble with an audible snap. This is a very good escape strategy, startling any would-be predator and hopping themselves off to hide in the herbage.I have a fond memory

yellow in another local park. But I saw this as a telling remark, that even he was more interested in the pretty but ultimately trivial observation of a fleetingly migrant butterfly, than the eco-genocide of a colony of nearly-top predators.

of the rest of the time they try to get away from the water, which attracts herons and other predators, so the last thing they want is to be dumped back in it at some inappropriate time of the year.The dried out wrinkly skin is fine too. It's their normal