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specimen in the fox dollops that sometimes decorate my lawn, but dung beetles are not very common in my garden. So I was a bit surprised to see one in a spider web a few weeks back. It was Aphodius prodromus, at 5 or 6mm rather smaller than the huge 25

.Next is what looks like a tiny animated scrubbing brush; it's the larva of a beetle, Ctesias serra. Related to carpet beetles, it scavenges on bits of insects left by spiders that make their messy webs under loose bark on old trees. Its long bristles protect

on the camera easily outshone them.I particularly liked this jumping spider, guarding a wrinkled orange. At nearly 25mm long it was much bigger than our diminutive zebra. It kept turning to face me; I wasn't sure whether it was keeping an eye (or four) on me

2007 will be remembered as a very good year for wasps. But before people start complaining about their vicious stings and bad tempers, I must point out that wasps are actually our friends. After birds and spiders, they are the most important insect

off and I went out to have a look. Nothing. All very curious until I went out again on Tuesday and had a look around. There, sheltering against the recesses of the bars and grills are several small garden snails and amongst them are some garden spiders

with sunbathing beasts: shieldbugs, spiders, ladybirds, bees, and two cats nestled in at the bottom. The newts have returned to the pond too; four of them were swimming about in there. These are the regular denizens of my garden, but two unusual visitors were a

woodlouse in the middle of moulting. Unlike insects and spiders, which rid the whole outer skin at once, woodlice remove first the back half, then, a few days later, the front half. This is the smooth woodlouse, Oniscus asellus, just slipping off its

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

brown species. But no, the white is spider silk. This one had been caught by some arachnid, trussed up with winding threads, but had still managed to escape and crawl, shackled, across the concrete. Respect.Vine weevils go exploring at night

; it zigzagged off crazily across the playground and came to rest on one of the creeper-covered walls. When I returned to finish off on Sunday a garden spider had spun its web across to the stump. Otherwise nothing.But I know that next year, the pond will be home