Country diary: one lone earwig stands her ground in the logpile

Langstone, Hampshire: She guards a clutch of 40 eggs with a maternal care that is unusual among insects

Hidden away in a damp, shady corner at the foot of my fence, a half-metre-high heap of logs and leaves has rotted down to rich humus, the few remaining tree stumps and branches pitted with insect boreholes.

As I turn over a partially buried tunnel of bark, woodlice scatter, a cluster of garden and brown-lipped snails shrink back into their banded shells, and a common cryptops centipede scuttles for cover.