cocoon

Wood ant nest.  This nest belongs to the Southern red wood ant, Formica rufa.  Wood ant nests do differ between species, although it can be hard to tell them apart.

Nest and budded smaller nest of wood ant.  This budding often happens with wood ant species.

Social parasitism in ants. The queen of the Slave maker ant, Formica sanguinea, being tended to by workers of Dusky ant Formica fusca.

Worker ant F. aquilonia Scottish wood ant, in profile.  Workers are all haplodiploid, sharing much of their genetic material with their mother, the queen. This supports their eusocial colonies.

Male wood ant F. lugubris Hairy wood ant.  These males have dark bodies and yellow legs and genitals.  Like the females, they have wings.  Unlike the females, shortly after mating during the nuptial flight, they will die.

Queen ant F. aquilonia Scottish wood ant with wings.  Newly emerged queens have wings, and following their mating and nuptial flight, they bite these off.  This enables them to burrow underground and set up a new ant nest and colony, and to begin laying eggs and raising young.

Pupae of a wood ant, both within its cocoon, and extracted.  Detail from a life cycle ant illustration by Lizzie Harper natural history and sciart illustrator

Larvae of wood ant showing their translucent bodies and segmentation.

Illustration of several eggs of a wood ant.

Brimstone butterfly Gonepteryx rhamni with wings spread

Butterfly bouquest invented mix of flowers and butterfly cut to white

Brown hairstreak Thecla betulae with wings folded, female flying behind, adult in foreground resting on a leaf

Comma butterfly Polygonia c-album from above and from side cut to white

Deaths head hawkmoth Acherontia atropos cut to white showing skull pattern on thorax

Forester moth Adscita statices with folded wings on a scabious flower, showin1g black colour and glittery irridescence of the wings

Heath fritillary butterfly Melitaea athalia on cowwheat with speedwell, one in flight and one showing folded underwings

Red necked footman Atolmis rubricollis on cuckoo flower Cardamine with black wings folded and scarlet red collar on view

Silver washed fritillary butterfly Argynnis paphia cut to white one with folded wings one in flight, feeding on scabious flowers

Small tortoiseshell butterfly Aglais urticae cut to white

Large striped swordtail Graphium antheus cut to whtie

Tobacco horn worm Manduca sexta life cyle with Tobacco plant showing all the life stages including egg, pupa, caterpillar, and adult moth

Tobacco horn worm Manduca sexta life stages egg pupa larva adult cut to whtie

Ringlet Aphantopus hyperantus and meadow brown aniola jurtina butterfly in amongst grasses in a meadow, some in flight, with with upper wings on show and some showing under wings

Tobacco horn worm Manduca sexta moth