Insects

Black Garden Ants nest mainly in dry soil and humus. Although their nests are most often noticed in gardens - in flower beds, lawns and under paving stones.

The adult bloody-nosed beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa) is black and it is slow-moving and feeds on bedstraw plants.

The Brimstone is one of our most recognisable butterflies; the male has the yellow wings and the female has pale green wings.

The adult Common Earwig is 11-16 mm long. Its legs, thorax and wing-cases are yellowish brown, but the head and the abdomen are dark brown.

The Common Field Grasshopper is the one of the grasshoppers that you are most likely to see throughout the UK.

The Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperla carnea) is about 10 mm long. It is pale lime green during the summer, with a lemon-yellow stripe down the middle of the body.

The Common Darter is a small dragonfly that quickly colonises ponds. The male is dull red and the female is yellow, orange or brown.

Dragonflies are similar to damselflies, but hold their wings horizontally at right-angles to their body when at rest.

The Green Shield Bug, like its name suggests, is bright green and has a body shaped like a knight’s shield.

The Orange Tip Butterfly can be seen on the wing from April to June. The female which doesn’t have the orange tips, lays its eggs on cuckoo flower.

Wood ants create large mound nests in open glades or on the edges of woodlands in sunny, sheltered locations. The ant mounds are dome-shaped and are often over a meter high and two metres wide.

The Seven Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata) is a small red beetle that has seven different shaped black spots on each wing case.

Water Scorpions (Nepa cinerea) can be found all around the UK in ponds, lakes, shallow slow-flowing water and sometimes in stagnant water.

The White-Letter Hairstreak Butterfly (Strymoidia w-album) is identified by the distinctive W mark on the underside of the wings.