I’m very honoured that one of my insect photos has been included in Michael Chinery’s latest book, which has just been published by A&C Black.
Michael Chinery is one of Britain’s best-known natural history authors. Amongst many other books, he wrote Collins’ Complete British Insects, which has been my insect ID bible ever since I got bitten by the insect bug some years ago.
Most of the photos in Michael’s latest book are taken by the author himself, but there are some extra photos provided by the likes of Roger Key (with whom I worked in Colwall earlier this year), and sawfly expert Guy Knight, who has helped me identify many sawflies I have photographed over the years.
The photo of mine that is included in Michael’s book is of an adult Berberis (also known as Barberry) sawfly. Keen readers of this blog will know that back in 2006, Berberis sawfly larvae raised quite a stir in our back garden (find out more).
The title of Michael Chinery’s book is Garden Pests of Britain and Europe. And if you want a pristine berberis bush in your garden, then I agree that you would view Berberis sawfly larvae as pests. In large numbers they can completely defoliate a bush. If, like many of the people who contact me at my blog, this is the situation you face, then this book will provide you with answers to deal with it.
Order ‘Garden Pests of Britain and Europe’
However, we are lucky: we have only ever had a moderate number of Berberis sawfly larvae on our berberis bush, and so we are able to view them as colourful, entertaining additions to our garden.
Anneliese Emmans Dean – info@theBigBuzz.biz – www.theBigBuzz.biz
Loved hearing you read your poem about the french Bumblebee on Woman’s hour today – thank you so much.
Thrilled to hear you enjoyed the poem, Maddy! You can find out more about said French bumblebee here: http://thebigbuzz.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/brand-new-bumblebee/ And there’s a video of another of my bee poems here: http://www.thebigbuzz.biz/videos.html#JaneBondvideo