Which came first, the chicken or the egg? An age-old question that I’ll leave you to discuss amongst yourselves. Eggs have featured in several blogs this year: a Coot and her eggs back in May (Coot eggs, 31 May); the spawn of Toads and frogs, 22 February; a lovely moth laying her eggs on grass stems (Pale tussock moth, 7 June); and, another insect, in Shieldbug eggs and hatchlings, 26 July.

There have, of course, been lots of other eggs I’ve seen that I haven’t written about, at least not this year. Those shown above are the eggs of a barkfly species, encased in a lovely silken cover, and a little clutch of ladybird eggs. And, below, are the empty egg cases of a Buff-tip moth and the tiny caterpillars that had recently emerged from them.