Beneficial Insect Box - overwintering for ladybirds, lacewings etc.

As the days grow shorter and cooler, many animals are beginning to look for a safe place to spend the winter.

The best way to cater for most hibernating animals is simply not to tidy your garden too much – a pile of leaves at the back of a flower bed provides a great place for many insects as well as some larger animals (including hedgehogs) to bed down for the winter. However, if you would like to go a step further and provide the animals in your garden with tailor-made winter homes then NHBS can help. For insects, including many important pollinators, predators of garden pests, and species that are important food items for bats, frogs, and many small mammals, NHBS offers a range of nesting and overwintering boxes.

Hedgehog Hibernation Box

For popular garden visitors like hedgehogs, and amphibians such as frogs and toads please visit our amphibian and mammal nest box pages.

Bat populations have fallen dramatically in recent decades and one reason for this is the loss of suitable hibernation sites (or hibernacula). NHBS offers a wide range of tailor-made bat hibernation boxes including wooden boxes such as the Double Chamber Bat Box - and the new Triple Chamber Bat Box which we introduced last week here - as well as more durable woodcrete colony hibernation boxes such as the Schwegler 1FW.

Small Bird Nest Box

Finally, spare a thought for those birds that do not migrate south to warmer areas. Although most of us only consider bird boxes as being useful during the summer in fact they are frequently used by roosting birds during the long cold winter nights. Putting bird boxes up in the autumn gives birds plenty of time to find them and increases the chances that your box will be used next spring.

Read our guide to choosing the right nest box for birds

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Popularity: 14% [?]

Due for publication in October (delayed from September – but it’ll be worth the wait!), here is a sample chapter from the Royal Entomological Society Book of British Insects, kindly supplied by publishers Wiley-Blackwell. 

Chapter 8 –  Order Odonata: the dragonflies and damselflies.

Pre-order The RES Book of British Insects today for £34.99 (reduced from £39.95). 

Offer ends 31/12/2011.

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Popularity: 9% [?]

Continuing our selection of the very best titles available through NHBS:

Britain’s Plant Galls: A Photographic Guide

by Michael Chinery

What?

A photographic guide to the natural history and field identification of the “strange lumps and bumps that we call galls…” (Introduction, p5).

Why?

Plant galls are a great subject of research for the amateur naturalist. Bridging the sciences of botany and entomology, they are a fascinating example of the symbiotic interdependence of nature, and the diversity of their size and appearance – from exquisitely attractive orb-like features and spiked swellings, to leaf blisters and discolourations – gives the interested naturalist a satisfying range of study.

The reader is taken on a guided tour of the galls arranged according to their host plants for ease of identification, and there are over 200 detailed colour photographs of the commonest galls to be found among Britain’s 1,000 species. The interaction between insect and plant which results in the gall is briefly described in each case, and the book contains a general introduction to the subject.

Who?

Michael Chinery is best known for his field guides to insects and other creepy-crawlies, especially those that occur in our gardens, and for his numerous books encouraging young people to explore and enjoy the countryside and its wildlife. Insects and wild flowers fascinated him from a very early age and this led inevitably to an interest in plant galls, with their intimate mix of plant and animal life. He joined the British Plant Gall Society soon after its formation  in 1985, and has been editing the Society’s journal, Cecidology, since 1990.

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Popularity: 6% [?]

Royal Entomological Society Book of British Insects

by Peter C. Barnard

Pre-order The RES Book of British Insects today for £34.99 (reduced from £39.95).

The Royal Entomological Society (RES) and Wiley-Blackwell are proud to present this landmark publication, celebrating the wonderful diversity of the insects of the British Isles, and the work of the RES (founded 1833). This book is the only modern systematic account of all 558 families of British insects, covering not just the large and familiar groups that are included in popular books, but even the smallest and least known. It is beautifully illustrated throughout in full colour with photographs by experienced wildlife photographers to show the range of diversity, both morphological and behavioural, among the 24,000 species. All of the 6,000 genera of British insects are listed and indexed, along with all the family names and higher groups. There is a summary of the classification, biology and economic importance of each family together with further references for detailed identification. All species currently subject to legal protection in the United Kingdom are also listed… [read more]

Publication scheduled for September 2011.

Offer ends 31/12/2011.

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Popularity: 26% [?]

With wildlife conservation high on everyone’s agenda, here are some recommendations to introduce you to the natural diversity of your garden, and help you to create a haven for wildlife on your doorstep:

Guide to Garden Wildlife, by Richard Lewington, is a field guide to all the wildlife you might expect to encounter in the garden – from mammals, birds and insects to invertebrates and pond life. The species descriptions are full of useful detail, and Lewington provides the intricate illustrations that make this a real treasure of a handbook. There are informative sections on garden ecology, nest-boxes and bird feeders, and creating a garden pond.

Gardening for Butterflies, Bees and Other Beneficial Insects, by Jan Miller-Klein, homes in on practical techniques for encouraging insect diversity in your garden. A large-format tour through the seasons, with additional sections on tailored habitats, and species-appropriate planting, this beautifully photographed guide is perfect for every bug-friendly gardener looking to provide a good home for the full range of insect life.

RSPB Gardening for Wildlife: A Complete Guide to Nature-friendly Gardening, by Adrian Thomas, is a fantastic encyclopaedic introduction to how best to provide for the potential visitors to your garden, while maintaining its function for the family. A species-by-species guide to the ‘home needs’ of mammals, birds, insects and reptiles is followed by a substantial selection of practical projects, and helpful hints and appendices, to get your garden flourishing – whatever its size.

Dr Jennifer Owen’s Wildlife of a Garden: A Thirty-year Study, is a rare and illuminating book, in which is recorded – in scrupulous detail – the evidence of dramatic changes in populations in a single suburban garden in Leicester over a thirty-year period. An abundance of beautifully presented data, discussed in the context of wider biodiversity fluctuations, is balanced with numerous colour photographs, illustrations, and descriptive natural history of the residents of the garden. Modest in one sense, but unbelievably grand in timescale – and in its completeness – the rigorous effort and expertise that have been applied to the task of collecting and interpreting these data make this study a real one-off in the field of natural history writing.

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Popularity: 9% [?]

Continuing our selection of the very best titles available through NHBS:

Bumblebees

by Oliver E Prys-Jones and Sarah A Corbet

What?

Revised 3rd edition of this guide to bumblebees, no. 6 in the Naturalists’ Handbook series.

Why?

Bumblebees are appealing insects, and a great subject for study. They are more approachable than honeybees and easy to observe in the garden or the open countryside. This revised edition of the classic Naturalists’ Handbook looks at species identification, ecology and conservation, and the variety of behaviours and lifestyles.

The information is presented in such a way that anyone with an interest in the natural history and conservation of bumblebees will be able to undertake their own useful investigations and add to the body of research which will hopefully allow these important pollinating insects to survive and thrive for future generations.

As well as colour plates for basic identification, there are further keys showing anatomical detail and species variation, and detailed range maps for regional identification.

Who?

Oliver E. Prys-Jones studied zoology at the University of St. Andrews and furthered a long term interest in bumblebees and their life histories with doctoral and research fellowship studies at the University of Cambridge. He subsequently qualified in medicine at Liverpool University and remains absorbed by bumblebees while working as a medical practitioner in North Wales.

Sarah A. Corbet has taught entomology and ecology in London University and the University of Cambridge. Her research interest is in pollination ecology, with a special focus on bumblebees.

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Popularity: 6% [?]

Continuing our selection of the very best titles available through NHBS:

Butterflies of Britain and Europe: A Photographic Guide

by Tari Haahtela, Kimmo Saarinen, Pekka Ojalainen and Hannu Aarnio

What?

The definitive photographic guide to all 444 species of European butterflies.

Why?

The macro photography in this volume is simply stunning. The immediacy of the images and the vitality of the colour contrast will make butterfly identification even more of a pleasure. Species are generally pictured in the context of their habitat, with insets highlighting colouration details or sex differences, and the identification data and range maps are very user-friendly. Later in the book there is a focus on European Islands and Eastern European species, to cater for travellers who are looking for easy on-the-spot identification. And it all fits nicely into the average-sized jacket pocket!

Who?

Tari Haahtela, Kimmo Saarinen, Pekka Ojalainen and Hannu Aarnio are a team of dedicated Finnish naturalists that specialise in macro photography. They have travelled the length and breadth of Europe in search of butterflies for this book. Having already written several books on moths and butterflies in Finnish, this is their first English-language title.

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Popularity: 7% [?]

Doug Mackenzie Dodds, from the UK, reviews the Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland by Martin Townsend and Paul Waring, illustrated by Richard Lewington

“Best, most user-friendly moth ID guide on the market:

This book might not catch your eye on the shelf – small, paperback and easily hidden between larger, more attractively-designed moth ID books, but if you are into your moths, I’d thoroughly recommend it.

It’s perfect for the bookshelf but comes into its own in the field. It’s small, light, covered in a waterproof layer, the moths are well-ordered in the book, lifesize and in the two years I’ve owned it it’s not let me down once.

Its very comprehensive – ie. if you trap a moth (or find one!) – you will find it in this book – and so much easier than other, larger, showier, less waterproof, less well-ordered books.

I thoroughly recommend this book if you own a moth trap or even if you don’t.”

Visit this reviewer’s website

Read our blog post about Robinson moth traps

Share your views with NHBS customers around the world – click here to create a product review

Customer reviews can be read in the ‘Reviews’ tab on each product page and here on the Hoopoe

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Popularity: 12% [?]

This comprehensive guide remains the most thorough source of information on the larval stage of the majority of the lepidoptera of the British Isles. This new reprint edition maintains the photographic quality of the original, and continues to be an indispensible companion to Bernard Skinner’s Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles. Also new from Apollo Books this week, Microlepidoptera of Europe, Volume 6: Gelechiidae II (Gelechiinae: Gnorimoschemini) carries on the excellent series of European micro-moth identification guides.

Coming soon… Butterflies of Britain and Ireland: A Field and Site Guide which covers all residents and vagrant species in Britain and Ireland and includes a site guide and accurate maps. Illustrated with hundreds of colour photos.

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Popularity: 13% [?]

Wired Magazine has a series of stunning close-up images of insect eyes from previous year’s entries of Nikon’s Small World Photomicrography Competition.

My favourite image has to be the  Klaus Bolte’s Tetse Fly (Glossina genus). Nikon also offer a daily ‘Identify the Image‘ challenge (I only got 3/5 today…).

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Popularity: 10% [?]