A common bluel butterfly. Butterfly numbers fell by more than a fifth across the UK countryside last year, a study has revealed

Photograph: Matt Berry/Butterfly Conservatio/PA

Big Six Birds: Southern ground hornbill about to catch a large beetle in its beak – Masai Mara, Kenya

Africa’s Big 5 and Little 5 wildlife safari photo gallery

A locust sits on a wheat stalk in a field owned by a local agrarian farm near the town of Neftekumsk, east of Stavropol in Russia.

Photograph: Eduard Korniyenko/Reuters

(Source: Guardian)

The yellow horned moth is a characteristic spring moth of the Scottish Highlands, named after the colour of its antennae

Wildlife of the Great Glen photo gallery by Nigel Atkinson

Familiarise yourself with out fiercest predators: at rest, dragonflies spread their wings; damselflies hold theirs closed behind their abdomen. Then go pond-dipping for the ferocious nymphs with their explosive hinged-jaw action. - Ben Hoare

A morpho peleides butterfly lays its eggs in Butterfly Garden in La Guacima, north-west of San Jose

Photograph: Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters

(Source: Guardian)

Your first glimpse into a honeybee colony will astound. Masses of workers, wings whirring, tend cells and larvae - some arriving, others leaving, a few dancing. Many beekeeping societies and National Trust properties have glass-walled observation hives that reveal all without the need to don a suit. - Ben Hoare

(Source: discoverwildlife.com)

British insect photo gallery by Matt Cole

A tiny globular springtail (2-3mm in size) on a red house brick. These strikingly-patterned springtails are very common and can often be found under rocks or logs

British insect photo gallery by Matt Cole

Dragonflies

British insect photo gallery by Matt Cole

Snails

British insect photo gallery by Matt Cole

‘A lesser marsh grasshopper. Has my camera confused it?’

British insect photo gallery by Matt Cole

Ladybirds

British insect photo gallery by Matt Cole

Ants

British insect photo gallery by Matt Cole