Invertebrates

Invertebrates are crucial for pollination, soil health, and food webs, relying on diverse habitats. Grasslands, wood pasture, ponds, and ditches provide essential resources and movement corridors. Effective management – such as sensitive grazing, wetland restoration, and preventing over-shading – maintains resilience and biodiversity. Without these measures, fragmentation leads to decline. Integrated management across the Windsor Estate sustains ecosystems and vital natural services.

Explore our wildlife

All wildlife categories

Diving Beetles

The Great diving beetle is a large and voracious predator of ponds and slow-moving waterways. Blackish-green in colour, it can be spotted coming to the surface to replenish the air supply it stores beneath its wing cases.

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Pond Skater

The common pond skater can be seen ‘skating’ over the surface of ponds, lakes, ditches and slow-moving rivers. It is predatory, feeding on small insects by detecting vibrations in the water’s surface.

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Water Boatman

The Lesser water boatman has oar-like legs to help it swim, but it does not swim upside-down. It is herbivorous and can be found at the surface of ponds, lakes and ditches.

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Water Scorpion

The water scorpion is dark brown with large, pincer-like front legs, a flattened, leaf-shaped body, and a long ‘tail’, giving it the appearance of its namesake. It lives in still-water ponds and lakes, and is common around the shallow edges of garden ponds.

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Water Stick Insect

An underwater predator, it uses its front legs to catch its prey. Its tail acts as a kind of ‘snorkel’, so it can breathe in the water. Look for it in ponds and lakes.

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