Winter is a hard time, especially if you happen to be an insect.

The cold, dark days of winter offer little food and the cold could easily be the death of you unless you find adequate shelter.

These desperate times leads many insects to take desperate measures to ensure winter survival.

Very few insect species spend the winter as adults, hibernating in much the same way as mammals. Most either choose to complete their lives during the warmer months with only the much more resilient eggs or well-hidden pupa surviving through to the spring.

This policy is taken to its extreme with the social insects.

Hive making bees and wasps die en-masse in the autumn with many thousands of workers dying, leaving the fate of future generations in the care of a handful of mated queens that have managed to find a hiding place, where they can ride out the winter.

Knowing this, I should not have been surprised that one of these mated queens had managed to find herself quite a cosy spot to over-winter in my nice, centrally heated lounge.

What was a surprise to my family and I was the species.

When it comes to large invertebrates, this magnificent creature may not be the biggest, but it has to be within the top 10 per cent.

Although when it comes to generating pure panic and projecting menace, the creature has to be number one.

Being mainly nocturnal in habit, this queen hornet decided to make its appearance during early evening, just as we were all settled watching the television.

A deep threatening buzz first announced its presence and as our jaws dropped, it flew across the room, to the accompaniment of screams, and landed on the curtains.

As frightening as a hornet looks, they are much more level headed than wasps and only sting after extreme provocation.

Unfortunately, its mean wasp-like appearance has led to them being persecuted and as a result they are now a rare and sorely missed part of our wildlife.

In my house the shock of its appearance was soon replaced by "wow, look at that."

The hornet sat patiently on the curtain until it could be manouvered into a bug collection jar.

At this point, it would be fair to say it got rather cross and its thick sting could be seen jabbing in and out as everyone looked on.

After a few moments of being able to observe such a magnificent creature so close up, it was taken into the garden and released.

Hopefully, this queen will find a suitable place for its new hive not too far away and I will be able to watch this wonderful creature visiting my garden on mild summer's evenings.