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of leaf mines. I'm not an expert on mines, but it just didn't look right. I think I must never have seen these delicate angular leaves attacked so.My first thought was that the mines had exactly the same shape and form as those scarring the horse chestnuts

, and these too, contorted to grip each other, forming first a tight knot, then expanding into a broad round flower shape. This is the point at which each exudes sperm into the other. Slugs are hermaphrodites, their bodies containing both male and female organs

the bird’s exact shape and size. Occasionally it comes out onto the bark to fidget about, but most of the time it stays indoors and keeps bobbing its head in and out of the hole. What on Earth is it up to?I can only imagine that it is picking up bits

, stilt-like legs and stiff T-shaped stance. I think it’s most likely the common bindweed plume, Emmelina monodactyla. I’ve got the tiny caterpillars chewing the bindweed leaves in my garden.There are about 40 UK plume-moth species, but as my colleague

, it doesn’t have long legs, it doesn’t scuttle, it doesn’t lurk, and it doesn’t come out at night to creep across the living room carpet.Instead, it is bright and breezy, it has short shapely legs, it hops, jumps and skips, it struts carefully across a fence

, a broken watering can and the rabbit's litter tray (which was very conveniently shaped I have to say). I've kept some of the pondweed in a bucket and spread the rest on a plastic sheet before I get rid of it on the compost heap. Not surprisingly

or so semi-bonsai topiary trees. Many are sculpted into bobble 'cloud' shapes or manicured to form miniature hedges and climbers around the intricate buildings. They really make the place a magical world and produce a series of spectacular vistas

species of rove beetle regularly turn tail and disappear into the morass when I lift off the lids. Last week I found a shiny black domed beetle about the size and shape of a kidney bean - Hister merdarius. It's very scarce, so has no common name and being

of stairs. Instead of a tight whorl forming the usual globe shape, the helix is stretched out into a point.I'm guessing that no matter how much I go on about snails, most people will regard them as a nuisance and a pest. But maybe this is because we haven

home in the empty Tupperware, after ham and cheese sandwiches were scoffed. They were easy to catch in the gently slanting shallows of the saucer-shaped ponds, either using a small pond-dipping net, or sometimes with our bare hands. Very occasionally