Top Five Insects I’ve Seen – #1 – The Ruby-tailed wasp (Chrysis sp. or family Chrysididae)

As if you didn’t know it’d be a wasp! But look at it. It’s the wasp I show people to use as a crowbar to talk about wasp diversity. The first thing people who don’t know wasps say when you show them this little beauty, or any of their family, the chrysididae, is “Is that

Top Five Insects I’ve Seen – #2 – The Thick-Legged Flower Beetle (Oedemera nobilis)

I’ma give ya some behind the scenes! Curating lists like this can be difficult. Because if I’d just picked my favourites you would have had four wasps and a beetle, each article would have been 100 words and as many images long and even fewer people would have cared. If I’d picked your favourites you

Top 5 Insects I’ve Seen – #3 – The Cinnabar Moth (Tyria jacobaeae)

I hadn’t actually seen one of these until only a couple of months ago. Not their adult, flying form anyway. But when you see this beautiful vamp spread its wings it truly is something to behold. Seeing it Unfold its seemingly blood-stained black cape to reveal a bold red lining beneath. This moth is fashion

Top Five Insects I’ve Seen – #4 – The Rose Chafer (Cetonia aurata)

I was initially going to write a list of top five most striking UK insects but alas when I actually put grey matter to the task I realised the list would be mostly, if not exclusively, beetles. Beetles, the order coleoptera, are a huge group. Of all the species described in the world somewhere around

Top Five Insects I’ve Seen – #5 – The Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva)

The Andrena genus of bees is astounding! These are the bees you are most likely to see around May-early June before the honeybees really kick off their hives. If you’ve ever been out on a warm, sunny day in April and seen lots of bees in the air, the bulk of them will be Andrenids.

My Top 5 Favourite UK Insects I’ve Seen: Introduction

Happy Insect Week! If you’ve been following for a while you’ll know my history with insects, but if not here’s the story. I was, at one point, before an autistic burnout turned my dreams to ashes, an aspiring biologist. It is safe to say that biology, ecology and wildlife were my first true academic love.

Redgrave and Lopham Fen, East Anglia

A short write-up/review of my recent visit to Redgrave and Lopham fen on the border of Norfolk and Suffolk. A rare river-valley fen, it is a unique habitat and on of the UK’s very few homes to the great fen raft spider, an awesome semi-aquatic spider. It is also home to a great deal more natural beauty and biodiversity besides and so I heavily recommend a visit.

Dungeness – Weird and Wonderful

A look at Dungeness Nature Reserve, an amazing area of unparalleled biodiversity in the UK, full of moths, butterflies, bees, wasps, flies and beetles, a unique habitat and ecosystem that begs to be walked around and explored.

Is That a Wasp? A Simple Wasp Identification Guide

A short and simple guide, with lots of pictures, of how you can try and tell what’s a wasp from what isn’t. Also a simple description of how you will certainly fail!

#WaspFlower – Walk 1 – A Gallery

The photographic results of my first major walk attempting to find wasps on flowers for the Big Wasp Survey. I found more than just wasps and so we have beautiful galleries of wasps, beetles, bees, flies, flowers and others!