Beguiled by blues
Butterfly expert Alan Sumnall offers a thorough guide to one of our most enchanting groups of butterflies – the blues.
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Chwilio
Garden tiger moth
The garden tiger is an attractive, brown-and-white moth of sand dunes, woodland edges, meadows and hedgerows; it will also visit gardens. In decline, it is suffering from the 'tidying up…
Peppered moth
The peppered moth is renowned for its markings that have evolved to camouflage it against lichen in the countryside and soot in the city. It can be seen in gardens, woods and parks, and along…
The UK Government has launched an attack on nature - tearing up the most fundamental legal protections our remaining wildlife has
The largest threat to nature in a generation is happening before our very own eyes, with UK government planning to scrap all EU laws relating to the legal protections of our natural spaces. We…
Emperor moth
An unmistakeable insect of heaths, sand dunes and grasslands, the Emperor moth is fluffy, grey-brown, with big peacock-like eyespots on all four wings. Males can be seen during the day, but…
My passion
Graham has been mad about butterflies all his life. He volunteers for Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and records them on a local nature reserve as well as nationally.
Azure damselfly
The Azure damselfly is a pale blue, small damselfly that is commonly found around most waterbodies from May to September. Try digging a wildlife pond in your garden to attract damselflies and…
Violet ground beetle
Violet ground beetles are active predators, coming out at night to hunt slugs and other invertebrates in gardens, woodlands and meadows.
Six-spot burnet moth
The six-spot burnet moth is a day-flying moth that flies with a slow, fluttering pattern. Look for it alighting on knapweeds and thistles in grassy places. It is glossy black, with six red spots…
Box tree moth
This moth first arrived in the UK in 2007 and has rapidly spread throughout England.
My laboratory
Nora’s study of bird behaviour explores how small bird communities flock together to ward off larger predators. Nature has many things to teach us and is now widely acknowledged as a key…
My classroom
Pupils from Abingdon Primary School in Middlesbrough, Jon and Abdul, really enjoy learning outside the classroom, especially sketching butterflies.