This summer I had the opportunity to visit this island. The stories were true. My visit was brief and I should have worn different clothes. Being in a small rowing boat with ants in your pants is not fun!

I have never seen so many ants on almost anything. There were ants all over the ground, all the low vegetation and on the tree trunks.

Unfortunately, in my haste to leave I forgot to take any specimens. I would guess that they were a Formica species but would need to go back and confirm. Does anyone have some good suggestions for keeping ants at bay?

Anyway, autumn is definitely underway here. It’s dark when I get home from work, the leaves are changing colour and I have started packing my waterproof jacket for the inevitable rain.

My summer has been incredibly busy and that’s one of the poor reasons I have not written recently. The more important reason is due to changing jobs, where it matters more if I identify myself online, especially entomologically. Thankfully, I think I’ll have the latter reason resolved soon.

Entomologically, this summer has been action packed. I have been to many interesting sites and seen more new insects that any other year.

North Thames/Stanford-le-Hope Marshes - One of the more interesting sites which has a salt marsh area.

Soon my insect photo count will breach the 1,000 mark! I even managed to do a little insect hunting in Sweden and saw one of the world’s oldest tractors :)

Ferguson Tractor

In previous years I remember feeling somewhat sad when summer ended and the insect season was finishing. Right now I am looking forward to sorting out my insect records, investigating photographic metadata and catching up on some reading!

The Biology section of the featured articles is dominated by dinosaurs and things with feathers or fur and needs more insect content!