There are a couple of orange and black striped caterpillars that you will commonly encounter in the Loire Valley in the summer. The French ...

There are three species of leaf rolling weevil that you may encounter in the Touraine Loire Valley. Hazel Leaf Rolling Weevil Apoderus c...

Cardinal Beetles are a small family of bright scarlet beetles. The larvae are rather flattened and live under bark, predating other insects....

Scientific Name: Argogorytes mystaceus (Crabronidae). English Name: a digger wasp. French Name:  5 Key Characters: complet...

Scientific Name: Meloe violaceus (Meloidae). English Name: Violet Oil Beetle. French Name: Le Méloé violet (='violet oil bee...

Throughout France there is a network of variously named public rights of way. One of the most frequently encountered by walkers is the chemi...

The Loire valley is in fact a river system, and includes many rivers which flow into the Loire. Feeding these tributaries in turn is a netwo...

Scientific Name: Mantis religiosa (Order Dictyoptera, suborder Mantodea, family Mantidae) . English Name: Praying Mantis (Mantid fa...

Scientific Name: Vespa crabro (Vespidae). English Name: European Hornet (Social wasps family). French Name: Le Frélon. 5...

Scientific Name:  Tettigonia viridissima (Tettigoniidae). English Name: Great Green Bush-cricket (Bush-cricket family). French Na...

Scientific Name: Hedera helix subsp helix (Araliaceae). English Name: Common Ivy; English Ivy; Bind Wood (Ivy family). French Na...

The Social Wasps are a group of closely related and very similar species from the genera Vespula , Dolichovespula , and Polistes (Paper Wa...

Ladybirds are small dome shaped beetles. Their heads and legs are positioned so they are almost invisible under the protective dome of wing ...

Digger Wasps Crabronidae are a family of solitary species which mostly nest in burrows in the ground, sometimes forming large aggregations...

Loire Valley Nature is designed to be used as an English language natural history web resource for lowland central France. It uses Blogger ...

Plant galls are caused by tiny wasps of the Cynipidae family. The wasps are the size of ants but can be identified to family level by their ...

Scientific Name: Ephippiger ephippiger Tettigoniidae English Name: Saddle-backed Bushcricket. French Name: Le Tizi (= an onomat...

Scientific Name: Delta unguiculatum . (Syn Eumenes unguiculata, D. unguiculata .) Eumenidae or Vespidae subfamily Eumeninae. English N...