Many of us have felt the painful bite of the Twin-lobed deer-fly (a 'horse-fly') while out walking in damp grasses or woods. But mostly, it prefers to feed on the blood of cows and…

The violet click beetle is a very rare beetle that lives in decaying wood, particularly common beech and ash. It gets its name from its habit of springing upwards with an audible click if it falls…

Creeping buttercup is our most familiar buttercup - the buttery-yellow flowers are like little drops of sunshine peppering garden lawns, parks, woods and fields.

The ragged-edged, purple flower heads of Greater knapweed bloom on sunny chalk grasslands and clifftops, and along woodland rides. They attract clouds of butterflies.

Golden banks of common rock-rose make a spectacular sight on our chalk and limestone grasslands in summer. A creeping shrub, it is good for bees, moths and butterflies.

The small heath is the smallest of our brown butterflies and has a fluttering flight. It favours heathlands, as its name suggests, as well as other sunny habitats.

Buddleia is a familiar shrub, well-known for its attractiveness to butterflies. It is actually an introduced species, however, that has become naturalised on waste ground, railway cuttings and in…