We have a blog article about 'How to Protect our Pollinators in the Slow Season' which explains this in detail and the beneficial reasons for waiting to clean up leaf litter and dried perennial stems.

If you are itching to clean up garden beds, bundling stems and piling in an out of sight location in in your garden, or some gardeners tie together and tie to a stake in the garden to give any pollinators that are slowly waking up time to emerge. Many butterfly and moth larvae overwinter in the leaf litter so raking up and composting too soon will disturb them. Leaving the leaves to naturally decompose into the bed is best. New research has been done stating that the leaves help store greater amounts of carbon in the soil when left as well. If you can't wait to start a spring mulch application or tidying up, consider only doing this in front garden beds or those most visible to the neighbors, or you can either gently move leaves in piles or sections to an unseen area in the yard. If you rake them it could harm the overwintering insects

Please feel free to reach out with further questions!

Emily