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remains open all night without complaint from the females in the house. And with the window open we get visitors. This morning it was a brimstone moth, Opisthograptis luteolata, decorating the white wall tiles. Although this is an extremely common moth

had a ragged ball of spawn, but it quickly disintegrated into an opaque white mess, and no tadpoles ever resulted. We often see frogs of various sizes, under flower pots, behind the compost bins, or hopping about in the more unkempt bits of the flower

uncamouflaged against the white. It does not need to be hidden, its bright colours are a warning that it is revoltingly poisonous should anything be foolhardy enough to try and eat it.My garden pond has got a puncture. We were really proud of the original design

stubs, but she is still quite unable to fly. Instead, she emerges from her cocoon and gives off a pheromone scent to attract the night-flying males. These rather unassuming moths are mottled brown with a small white spot on each forewing. She mates

wings (upper and lower sides), the meadow brown has a single white spot, but the gatekeeper has two. You can't see them in the photo above, because the butterflies have adopted their 'secure' resting position, with front wings tucked behind

to appear as the snow melted. Like most people we got the main white-out on Sunday night and Monday morning. So good snow-balling fun with the neighbours throughout the day. But not one insect to be seen. Nor the next day. Nor the next.I had to wait until

the spiky black orange and white caterpillars, but I expect them to be around shortly.

pallid nymphs make the white frothy gobs of cuckoo spit as they feed by sucking plant sap. There are dozens of them. And not only are they hopping about on the sunny foliage, they’re busy having sex too. Perhaps this is a bit ambitious, given that they

and am on the verge of calling it a day when my eye is caught by a slight disturbance extreme stage right. Six or eight small-to-medium-sized birds are silhouetted against the white houses as they land in the topmost twigs of a straggling pear or apple

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