They are – they just don’t like running or flying in wet weather. When it rains, flying (and crawling) insects shelter by roosting under leaves or logs, resting in the leaf litter or pressing themselves down into the grass- root thatch. They resume activity as soon as the sun comes out.
- How do insects survive downpours?
- What’s the most common insect in Britain?
- What are insects? And how many insects are there in the world?
British species need to be able to function in our wet, damp, cool, temperate oceanic climate – insects with a more Mediterranean range can’t survive here.
A quick look at distribution maps shows that most British insect species occur in south-east England, where it’s warmer and drier, and each has a range petering out at a zone where the damp and cool gets just too much for it to survive. This is particularly obvious with warmth-loving bees, wasps and ants, which need warm weather to forage and dry soils in which to nest.
