beetle

Fallen leaves also create an ecosystem for other species, Renwick explains: “You’ve got beetles in there. You have worms coming up from the ground. Moths lay their eggs in the leaves.”

"In this case, it's a beetle that loses the tree and the wood it needs to lay its eggs."

It is smaller than your fingernail, but this hairy beetle is one of the biggest single threats to the UK's forests.

Their leaves feed caterpillars, their bark shelters bats and beetles, and their acorns sustain mammals and birds through the winter.

And when describing her underachieving brother’s shortcomings, she says, “He’s got the brains of a dung beetle and the ambitions of a French bureaucrat.”