Our debt to the dung beetle
by Matt Shardlow from on (#NGDZ)
Lyddington, Rutland Poking around in the greenish sludge of a fresh pat reveals a wealth of beetle life
Summer is damply fading into Autumn, in the hedgerows the crimson hawthorn berries and flecked bodies of garden cross orbweavers are waxing to their utmost rotundity, while arable fields are in various stages of undress and reclothing.
Rutland is a small county - so small it has only half a member of parliament - with a rural, even quaint reputation; one to which the countryside around Lyddington conforms. Hills big enough to have names, including Prestley Hill, Bee Hill and the Barrows, frame the broad vale of the river Welland.
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