There were huge numbers of hibernating ladybirds I kept on running into last winter, they seemed to be everywhere, outdoors and indoors. I suspect a lot of them are this introduced Harlequin Ladybird, which seems to be very variable in appearance. Though still nothing to compare the great ladybird plagues that I remember from the past. One year in the mid-90s there were so many ladybirds in places that you couldn't walk along the street without crunching many with every footstep. In 1976 they were very numerous, and got so thirsty in the drought they took to biting people.

The butterflies have been very good this year. I was in central Europe in August and I couldn't believe how many there were there. Unfortunately also a plague of wasps.