Country Notebook

year and can be seen in damp pasture and downland, particularly in the South West – the narrow-bordered bee hawk-moth.

This fat-bodied moth is similar in appearance to the hummingbird hawk-moth – which can be seen hovering to feed from flowers in summer – but is scarcer and has transparent wings and a belt of orange across the body. If anything it is more likely to be confused with a bumblebee as it buzzes between flowers.

With expert advice on where to try,

Wood ants are about

the least socially distanced of our insects, with tens of thousands of individuals living in

incredible nest cities built up into mounds of pine needles and other

materials STEPHEN CARROLL

Martin Dohrn Martin Dohrn Wood ants play an important role in maintaining habitats Sir David Attenborough next to a large wood ant nest in Europe for a documentary which unravelled the secrets of a so-called ‘super colony’