This, it appears, will have to count as my first hoverfly of the year. It’s a drone fly, Eristalis tenax, fished out of the salt-filled outer compartment of the built-in water softener attached to washing machine and dishwasher in our holiday house in Yarmouth, on the Isle of Wight. Now how did that get in there?
Shieldbugs are lovely — why else would we give them such a heroic heraldic name?
Crawling into a bookshop near you. All myths about pants and pantries are dispelled. It contains one limerick.
My fave rhyme is limerick brevity, Five lines and a twist in th'extremity. The words quite a mash-up, Dr Seuss/ Ogden Nash-up — Gravitas with a smidgeon of levity.
Dylan Thomas wondered deeply about the worth of wasps. Although we are not told which authors wrote them, among the 'useful' presents he recieved were 'books that told me everything about the wasp, except why. This is the why.
I like beetles, I like them very much indeed, so I wrote a book about them.
A key selling point is the fact that the spine of the book is adorned with an elephant's bottom. Publication: February 2017.
A natural history of animals in the home. Click here for details of how to get the now scarce hardback.
The paperbacks were released into the wild in February 2016
A series of introductory 'how to' workshops/ seminars. Click here for follow-up information.
Published August 2012. How an irritating but trivial gnat became imbued with dark menace well beyond its diminutive size.
Garden Wildlife blog, mostly creepy crawlies, but also the occasional bluetit, fox or bat. Don't mention cats though.
Published May 2012. This'll get you scratching your head. Everything you wanted to know about head lice.
Biggest, fattest, fastest, shiniest, loudest, but also ugliest, slimiest, most dangerous, hairiest legs and rarest.
....and it's gone paperback
Scanning electron microscopy of shark skin, bat tongue, butterfly wing, fern frond.
I wrote on the biology, evolution, ecology and physiology of honeybees; others contributed chapters on beekeeping history, practical hive husbandry and honey recipes.
Article for the Sierra Club. The astounding close-up images are by John Hallmén.
What a waste — what is the biodiversity value of urban brownfields?
Richard Jones
Bugman Jones 
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