Species Database
Browse species profiles, conservation statuses, and seasonal information. Spot something not in the database? Submit a new species for review.
202 species in Insects
Submit a new speciesPolyommatus bellargus
The Adonis blue male is arguably the most intensely blue butterfly in Britain, restricted to short chalk turf. It has recovered well following targeted conservation.
Phlogophora meticulosa
The angle shades has beautifully complex patterning and distinctive crinkled wings, making it look exactly like a withered leaf when at rest.
Andrena cineraria
The ashy mining bee is a striking early spring bee with ashy-grey and black banding, found on coastal cliffs, quarries and garden paths where it nests in the ground.
Coenagrion puella
The azure damselfly is very similar to the common blue and equally widespread, distinguished by a wine-glass marking on the male's second abdominal segment.
Calopteryx splendens
The banded demoiselle is an exquisitely beautiful damselfly of slow, muddy rivers. Males have a distinctive dark band across the wing and flutter like butterflies.
Myathropa florea
The batman hoverfly has a distinctive batman-like marking on its thorax. It breeds in water-filled rot holes in trees and is a regular garden visitor.
Calopteryx virgo
The beautiful demoiselle favours fast, clear, stony streams, the male with an entirely dark wing contrasting with his iridescent blue-green body.
Bombylius major
The large bee-fly is one of spring's most charming insects, hovering over early flowers and feeding with a long proboscis. It parasitises mining bee nests, flicking its eggs at burrow entrances.
Philanthus triangulum
The bee wolf is a solitary wasp that hunts honeybees to provision underground nest burrows. It has spread northwards from southern England and is now found as far as Yorkshire.
Bombus monticola
The bilberry bumblebee is a mountain bumblebee of Scottish moorland and northern England, feeding heavily on bilberry. It has declined as upland habitats have changed.
Sympetrum danae
The black darter is the only entirely black darter in Britain, found on acid bogs and moorland in the north and west. Males turn black at maturity.
Lasius niger
The black garden ant is the species behind 'Flying Ant Day', when winged males and queens emerge for their nuptial flight on warm summer days, often simultaneously across a region.
Satyrium pruni
The black hairstreak has one of the most restricted ranges of any UK butterfly, confined to ancient blackthorn scrub in the East Midlands between Oxford and Peterborough.
Orthetrum cancellatum
The black-tailed skimmer is a dragonfly of open water with bare margins, the male blue with a black tail. It perches flat on the ground rather than on vegetation.
Timarcha tenebricosa
The bloody-nosed beetle is a large, flightless beetle named for its remarkable defence: when threatened it produces droplets of foul-tasting red fluid from its mouth.
Ischnura elegans
The blue-tailed damselfly is one of the most tolerant of all damselflies, breeding in brackish water, urban ponds and even mildly polluted water.
Somatochlora metallica
The brilliant emerald is a fast, wary dragonfly of shaded lakes and rivers in southern England and Scotland, its metallic green body glittering in sunlight.
Gonepteryx rhamni
One of the first butterflies to appear in spring, the brimstone overwinters as an adult and is thought to be the origin of the word 'butterfly'. The male's sulphur-yellow wings are unmistakeable.
Libellula depressa
The broad-bodied chaser is often the first dragonfly to colonise new garden ponds. Males are a vivid powder-blue; females and immature males are golden-yellow.
Aricia agestis
The brown argus is a small butterfly often mistaken for a female common blue, but it is chocolate brown with vivid orange spots. It has expanded northwards in recent years.
Bombus humilis
The brown-banded carder bee is one of Britain's rarer bumblebees, needing flower-rich grassland and declining with agricultural intensification across its limited UK range.
Thecla betulae
The brown hairstreak is the largest hairstreak in the UK, a late-summer species that lays its eggs on blackthorn. Hedge trimming has greatly reduced its numbers.
Aeshna grandis
The brown hawker is unmistakeable with its all-brown body and amber-tinted wings. It is a powerful flier often seen well away from water along hedgerows and woodland edges.
Bombus terrestris
The buff-tailed bumblebee is one of the UK's commonest and largest bumblebees, with queens often emerging in mild winters as early as January. A vital pollinator of crops and wildflowers.
Phalera bucephala
The buff-tip moth is one of Britain's most convincing mimics, resembling a broken birch twig so closely that it is almost impossible to see at rest.
Euclidia glyphica
The burnet companion is a small day-flying moth often seen alongside burnet moths on chalk grassland, its orange and dark brown hindwings flashing in flight.
Diachrysia chrysitis
The burnished brass is named for the striking metallic gold patches on its forewings, which glisten in light. It is common in gardens, hedgerows and roadside verges.
Nymphalis antiopa
The Camberwell beauty is a spectacular vagrant from Scandinavia, the deep maroon wings edged with a broad cream-yellow border making it unmistakeable.
Polyommatus coridon
The chalkhill blue is restricted to chalk and limestone grasslands in southern England where its foodplant horseshoe vetch grows. The male is a beautiful pale silvery-blue.
Tyria jacobaeae
The cinnabar moth is one of Britain's most recognisable moths, flying by day with striking black and red wings. Its yellow and black caterpillars feed openly on ragwort.
Colias croceus
The clouded yellow is a strong-flying migratory butterfly arriving from southern Europe each year. Numbers vary hugely; in good 'clouded yellow years' thousands are seen.
Gomphus vulgatissimus
The club-tailed dragonfly breeds in clean, fast-flowing rivers such as the Thames and Severn. It has a distinctive bulbous tail tip and separated green eyes.
Melolontha melolontha
The cockchafer or maybug is a large, bumbling beetle that emerges in May and blunders noisily around at dusk. Its larvae can take three to four years to develop in the soil.
Polygonia c-album
The comma has a distinctive ragged outline and a small white comma-shaped mark on its underwing. It has expanded northwards in recent decades, now reaching Scotland.
Polyommatus icarus
The common blue is the most widespread blue butterfly in Britain, found on grasslands, heathlands and coastal dunes wherever its foodplant bird's-foot trefoil grows.
Enallagma cyathigerum
The common blue damselfly is Britain's most abundant damselfly, found at almost any standing or slow-flowing water across the country.
Bombus pascuorum
The common carder bee is a gingery-brown bumblebee, one of the most widespread UK species, found in gardens, farmland and woodland rides well into autumn.
Sympetrum striolatum
The common darter is Britain's most widespread and abundant darter, flying from June through to November and even December in mild years.
Forficula auricularia
The common earwig is an unusual insect in that mothers guard their eggs and tend their young. The curved rear pincers are used in defence and in folding the wings.
Chorthippus brunneus
The common field grasshopper is one of Britain's most familiar grasshoppers, found on dry, short grassland and sunny banks, its chirping song a sound of summer.
Omocestus viridulus
The common green grasshopper is a grasshopper of longer, rougher grassland, its song a continuous sewing-machine trill. It is often the dominant species on moorland edges.
Chrysoperla carnea
The common green lacewing is a delicate insect with transparent, veined wings. Its larvae are ferocious predators of aphids. Adults overwinter indoors and turn pink-brown.
Palomena prasina
The common green shieldbug is widespread in hedgerows and gardens, turning bronze in autumn before it overwinters under bark and leaf litter.
Aeshna juncea
The common hawker is the predominant large hawker of northern and western Britain, flying over acid bogs and moorland from July to October.
Vespula vulgaris
The common wasp builds large papery nests in the ground or in cavities. Though often seen as a pest, it is a significant predator of insects and an important late-summer pollinator.
Agrius convolvuli
The convolvulus hawk-moth is a large migratory hawk-moth from Africa and southern Europe, occasionally arriving in Britain in impressive numbers.
Pholidoptera griseoaptera
The dark bush-cricket is Britain's most abundant bush-cricket, found in hedgerows, bramble and woodland edges throughout England and Wales.
Argynnis aglaja
The dark green fritillary is one of our fastest flying butterflies, soaring over coastal dunes, chalk downland and moorland, difficult to follow with the eye.
Acherontia atropos
The death's-head hawk-moth is the largest moth to visit Britain, a migrant from Africa bearing a skull-like marking on its thorax and capable of squeaking when handled.
Ocypus olens
The devil's coach horse is a large rove beetle that raises its tail and opens its jaws when threatened. It is a voracious nocturnal predator found in gardens, hedgerows and woodland.
Erynnis tages
The dingy skipper is a small brown butterfly of warm grassland, heathland and disused quarries, often resting with wings flat like a moth.
Coreus marginatus
The dock bug is a large, brown bug found on docks, sorrels and other plants in rough grassland and hedgerows throughout Britain.
Geotrupes stercorarius
The dor beetle is a large, bluish-black dung beetle that buries dung as food for its larvae. It is an important recycler of nutrients and is often parasitised by mites.
Cordulia aenea
The downy emerald is a scarce but widespread emerald dragonfly with brilliant green eyes, flying fast and low over still water in May and June.
Eristalis tenax
The drone fly mimics a honeybee drone convincingly in appearance and behaviour. Its rat-tailed maggot breathes through a long tail tube while feeding in polluted water.
Hamearis lucina
Despite its regal name, the duke of Burgundy is a small butterfly of chalk downland and woodland rides, now one of Britain's fastest declining species.
Bombus pratorum
The early bumblebee is one of the smallest UK bumblebees and among the first to appear in spring, with a yellow band and red tail. Colonies are short-lived, finishing by midsummer.
Andrena haemorrhoa
The early mining bee is a widespread spring solitary bee with a reddish-brown thorax, often one of the first bees of the year and an important pollinator of fruit trees.
Deilephila elpenor
The elephant hawk-moth is one of Britain's most beautiful moths, its pink and olive-green body a striking sight at dusk visiting honeysuckle and garden flowers.
Lestes sponsa
The emerald damselfly is the only UK damselfly to rest with wings partially spread. It is found at well-vegetated ponds and lakes, favouring acidic boggy habitats.
Anax imperator
The emperor dragonfly is Britain's largest resident dragonfly, the male an impressive blue with a black dorsal stripe. It patrols large ponds and lakes with extraordinary energy.
Saturnia pavonia
The emperor moth is Britain's only wild silk moth. Males fly by day across heathland in April; females can detect a male's scent from over a kilometre away.
Thymelicus lineola
The Essex skipper is very similar to the small skipper but has jet-black tips beneath its antennae. It has spread northwards significantly in recent decades.
Vespa crabro
Britain's largest social wasp, the European hornet is far less aggressive than its reputation suggests. It hunts insects including wasps and flies at dusk to feed its colony.
Smerinthus ocellata
The eyed hawk-moth reveals striking blue and red eyespots on its hindwings when disturbed, startling would-be predators.
Gryllus campestris
The field cricket is one of Britain's rarest insects, now restricted to one wild site in West Sussex after near-extinction. Its loud, penetrating song was once widespread on southern downland.
Zygaena trifolii
The five-spot burnet is a day-flying moth of damp meadows and coastal dunes in western Britain, closely related to the six-spot burnet.
Helophilus pendulus
The footballer hoverfly, named for its black and yellow stripes, is a common and widespread species of ponds and wet areas, often resting on flowers.
Pentatoma rufipes
The forest shieldbug is a large, brown shieldbug of woodland, feeding on the developing fruits of oak, alder and other trees.
Libellula quadrimaculata
The four-spotted chaser is a widespread and sometimes migratory dragonfly, the four wing spots distinctive. It aggressively defends perches from all comers.
Macrothylacia rubi
The fox moth is a medium-sized moth of heathland and moorland, the male a rich russet-red flying by day in May. The hairy caterpillar is often seen crossing roads in spring.
Bombus hortorum
The garden bumblebee has the longest tongue of any UK bumblebee, enabling it to reach nectar in deep flowers like foxglove and red clover. It has two yellow bands and a white tail.
Arctia caja
The garden tiger is one of Britain's most spectacular moths, with chocolate-brown and white forewings concealing vivid orange-red hindwings. Its woolly bear caterpillar is familiar.
Pyronia tithonus
The gatekeeper, or hedge brown, is a butterfly of bramble-rich hedgerows and woodland edges in southern Britain, often basking with wings spread.
Vespula germanica
The German wasp is very similar to the common wasp and equally familiar at picnics. It can be distinguished by three tiny black dots on the face where the common wasp has one.
Osmylus fulvicephalus
The giant lacewing is Britain's largest neuropteran with a wingspan up to 5 cm, found near clean, swift streams in Wales and western England.
Lampyris noctiluca
The glow-worm is neither a worm nor a firefly but a beetle. The wingless female glows green on summer nights to attract flying males. It has declined due to habitat loss and light pollution.
Cordulegaster boltonii
Britain's longest dragonfly, the golden-ringed has vivid yellow rings on a black body. It breeds in upland streams and its larvae take up to five years to mature.
Hipparchia semele
The grayling is a master of camouflage, landing on bare ground and tilting towards the sun to minimise its shadow. It favours warm, dry heathland and coastal cliffs.
Dytiscus marginalis
The great diving beetle is a powerful, predatory aquatic beetle found in ponds and slow rivers. It can tackle prey as large as small fish and tadpoles.
Tettigonia viridissima
The great green bush-cricket is Britain's largest cricket, an impressive insect with a deafeningly loud song. It is found on bramble, nettles and bracken in southern England.
Bombus distinguendus
The great yellow bumblebee is one of Britain's rarest insects, now confined to machair grasslands and coastal crofting areas of the Hebrides and northern Scotland.
Callophrys rubi
Britain's only green butterfly, the green hairstreak is well camouflaged on vegetation and found on heathland, downland and woodland edges from April to June.
Cicindela campestris
The green tiger beetle is a fast-running, fast-flying predator of heathland and sandy paths. It is one of Britain's fastest running insects, covering 2.5 metres per second.
Pieris napi
The green-veined white is a common butterfly of damp meadows and woodland rides, its underwing veins strongly marked with greenish scales.
Pyrgus malvae
The grizzled skipper is a small, fast-flying butterfly of chalk downland and woodland rides in southern England, its chequered brown and white pattern distinctive.
Anthophora plumipes
The hairy-footed flower bee is a fast-flying, bumblebee-like solitary bee, one of the first bees to emerge in spring. Males are ginger, females black — they look like different species.
Harmonia axyridis
The harlequin ladybird, introduced from Asia as a biocontrol agent, arrived in Britain in 2004 and has spread throughout the country, competing with and eating native ladybird species.
Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale
The hawthorn shieldbug is Britain's largest shieldbug, found on hawthorn, oak and other trees. Its metallic green and red patterning makes it unmistakeable.
Bombus jonellus
The heath bumblebee is a small bumblebee of heathland, bogs and moorland, found mainly in Scotland and western Britain. It has declined with the loss of heathland habitat.
Melitaea athalia
Once known as the 'woodman's follower', the heath fritillary is restricted to a few managed coppice woodlands in Kent and south-west England.
Argynnis adippe
The high brown fritillary is Britain's most endangered resident butterfly, restricted to bracken-covered hillsides in a handful of sites in Wales and south-west England.
Celastrina argiolus
The holly blue is the blue butterfly most likely to be seen in gardens, flying higher than most blues around holly and ivy. Its populations fluctuate with a parasitoid wasp.
Apis mellifera
The western honeybee lives in large colonies managed by beekeepers but also exists in wild and feral colonies. It is one of the world's most important pollinators.
Volucella zonaria
The hornet hoverfly is Britain's largest hoverfly and a convincing hornet mimic. It has spread northwards in recent decades and now breeds regularly in southern England.
Acheta domesticus
The house cricket is familiar as the chirping insect that sheltered in hearths and bakeries. It can no longer survive UK winters outdoors and is now mainly found in warm buildings.
Macroglossum stellatarum
The hummingbird hawk-moth is a day-flying migrant from southern Europe, hovering at flowers like a hummingbird to feed. Numbers reaching Britain vary with warm summer winds.
Coenagrion lunulatum
The Irish damselfly is found only in the UK in Ireland and a small area of Scotland, restricted to boggy loughs and pools with abundant emergent vegetation.
Colletes hederae
The ivy bee colonised Britain in 2001 and has spread rapidly northwards. It emerges in September to coincide with ivy flowering and can form enormous nesting aggregations.
Euplagia quadripunctaria
The Jersey tiger is a large, striking day-flying moth that has spread from south Devon across southern England. It sometimes appears in gardens feeding at buddleia.
Lasius fuliginosus
The jet black ant builds its nest in hollow trees and rotten wood, producing a distinctive acidic smell. It is glossy black and found in mature woodland throughout Britain.
Orthetrum coerulescens
The keeled skimmer is a small, slender blue dragonfly of boggy heathland and moorland, found mainly in southern and western Britain.
Coenonympha tullia
The large heath is a butterfly of boggy moorland with sphagnum moss, now restricted to sites in Scotland, northern England and Wales due to peat drainage.
Pyrrhosoma nymphula
The large red damselfly is often the first damselfly of the year, appearing in April. Its red body makes it unmistakeable at ponds and slow rivers.
Ochlodes sylvanus
The large skipper is a robust, golden-brown butterfly of rough grassland, woodland rides and hedgerows. The male has a distinctive dark sex brand on the forewing.
Pieris brassicae
The large white is one of Britain's commonest butterflies and a major pest of brassica crops. Its caterpillars are yellow and black, warning of their unpalatability.
Noctua pronuba
The large yellow underwing is one of Britain's commonest moths, flashing bright yellow hindwings when disturbed. It is attracted to light in enormous numbers.
Megachile centuncularis
The patchwork leafcutter bee cuts neat semicircular pieces from rose leaves to line its nest cells. A common visitor to garden bee hotels.
Dorcus parallelipipedus
The lesser stag beetle is all black and lacks the enlarged mandibles of its relative. It is found in mature gardens and woodland with decaying wood.
Mimas tiliae
The lime hawk-moth is a large, attractively patterned moth that rests by day on tree bark. Its distinctive larva, which feeds on lime and birch, is bright green with yellow stripes.
Conocephalus fuscus
The long-winged cone-head is a recent colonist that has spread rapidly across England from the south coast, its high-pitched buzz now common in tall grassland and reedbeds.
Thymelicus acteon
The Lulworth skipper has one of the most restricted ranges of any UK butterfly, found on the Dorset coast and a few other coastal sites where tor-grass grows.
Abraxas grossulariata
The magpie moth is a boldly patterned black, white and yellow moth of hedgerows and gardens, whose caterpillars feed on currant and gooseberry bushes.
Melanargia galathea
The marbled white is unmistakeable with its bold black and white chessboard pattern. It is found on unimproved chalk and limestone grassland in central and southern England.
Episyrphus balteatus
The marmalade hoverfly is the UK's most recognisable hoverfly, with distinctive double orange and single dark bands. Millions migrate from continental Europe each autumn.
Euphydryas aurinia
The marsh fritillary is one of Europe's most threatened butterflies, needing extensive areas of unimproved damp grassland where devil's bit scabious grows.
Ephemera danica
The mayfly has one of the shortest adult lifespans of any insect — less than a day in some species — emerging in large hatches from rivers that drive trout into a feeding frenzy.
Maniola jurtina
The meadow brown is one of Britain's commonest butterflies, found in any rough grassland habitat from June to October. It is remarkably constant in wing pattern across its range.
Pseudochorthippus parallelus
The meadow grasshopper is Britain's commonest grasshopper, found in damp and dry grassland. Unusually, it is flightless — its hindwings are vestigial.
Dolichovespula media
The median wasp is Britain's second largest social wasp after the hornet, building large aerial nests. It has expanded northwards in recent decades.
Aeshna mixta
The migrant hawker is the most common late-season hawker in southern Britain, boosted by migrants from continental Europe in September and October.
Typhaeus typhoeus
The minotaur beetle is a dung beetle of sandy heathland, the male bearing three forward-pointing horns. It buries rabbit droppings in deep tunnels for its larvae.
Danaus plexippus
The monarch butterfly undertakes one of the most remarkable migrations in the animal kingdom, travelling up to 4,800 km. A rare but increasingly recorded vagrant to south-west Britain.
Bombus muscorum
The moss carder bee is a sandy-ginger bumblebee of coastal grasslands, machair and meadows in northern and western Britain, declining due to agricultural change.
Callistege mi
The mother Shipton is a day-flying moth named for a pattern on its forewing resembling the profile of a witch. It is found on rough chalk and limestone grassland.
Myrmeleotettix maculatus
The mottled grasshopper is one of the smallest UK species, found on bare, sandy or rocky ground including coastal dunes, chalk downland and heathland.
Erebia epiphron
The mountain ringlet is Britain's only true alpine butterfly, found above 450 metres on the fells of the Lake District and Scottish Highlands.
Somatochlora arctica
The northern emerald is restricted to remote sphagnum bogs in the Scottish Highlands, one of Britain's rarest dragonflies and highly sensitive to climate change.
Meconema thalassinum
The oak bush-cricket is a delicate, entirely green cricket that lives in the canopy of oaks and other deciduous trees. It has no song and drums on leaves with its hind legs instead.
Lasiocampa quercus
The oak eggar is a large, rich-brown moth of heathland and woodland. The male flies rapidly by day searching for the larger, paler female who flies at night.
Meloe proscarabaeus
The oil beetle exudes toxic oil from its leg joints when threatened. Its complex life cycle depends entirely on mining bees. It has declined dramatically across Britain.
Anthocharis cardamines
The orange-tip is a herald of spring in Britain. Only the male bears the vivid orange wing-tips; both sexes share a beautiful mottled-green underwing.
Vanessa cardui
The painted lady undertakes one of the longest butterfly migrations of any species, travelling from sub-Saharan Africa to the UK — a round trip of up to 14,000 km.
Aglais io
The peacock butterfly is unmistakeable with its four striking eyespots. It overwinters as an adult and is one of the longest-lived UK butterflies, surviving up to 11 months.
Boloria euphrosyne
The pearl-bordered fritillary is an early spring butterfly of woodland rides and clearings, one of the UK's most rapidly declining species, now largely restricted to Scotland.
Biston betularia
The peppered moth became famous as a textbook example of industrial melanism, the dark form flourishing in polluted Victorian cities before returning to the typical peppered form.
Gerris lacustris
The common pond skater uses surface tension to walk on water, detecting prey by the ripples they create. It is found on still and slow-moving water throughout Britain.
Laothoe populi
The poplar hawk-moth is one of Britain's commonest hawk-moths, often found resting with hindwings projecting forward to mimic a bundle of dead leaves.
Sphinx ligustri
The privet hawk-moth is Britain's largest resident moth with a wingspan up to 12 cm, the pink-striped abdomen distinctive at rest.
Apatura iris
The purple emperor is one of Britain's most spectacular butterflies, the male with an imperial purple iridescence, living in the canopy of mature oak woodland.
Favonius quercus
The purple hairstreak lives almost its entire life in the oak canopy and is easily overlooked. The male is iridescent purple; both sexes have a conspicuous white-edged streak.
Cerura vinula
The puss moth has an extraordinary caterpillar that raises its forked tail and everts red whips when threatened. It feeds on willows and poplars across Britain.
Vanessa atalanta
The red admiral is a large, striking butterfly that migrates from southern Europe each spring. It is often the last butterfly seen in autumn, visiting fermenting fruit.
Myrmica rubra
The European fire ant or red ant is a familiar garden species with a sharp sting. It is the species most likely to be encountered when disturbing a pot plant or garden stone.
Osmia bicornis
The red mason bee is one of Britain's most effective pollinators, nesting in holes in walls and readily using bee hotels. It emerges in spring to coincide with apple blossom.
Bombus lapidarius
The red-tailed bumblebee is easily identified by its entirely black body and vivid orange-red tail. Queens and workers are common on garden flowers and downland.
Formica rufa
The red wood ant builds enormous mound nests in woodland rides and clearings, a colony containing up to 400,000 workers. It is a significant predator of woodland insects.
Aphantopus hyperantus
The ringlet is a chocolate-brown butterfly of damp, tussocky grassland and woodland clearings, with distinctive eye-like rings on its underwing.
Metrioptera roeselii
Roesel's bush-cricket has spread dramatically northwards in Britain in recent decades. Its continuous electric buzzing, like a pylon, is now common in rough grassland.
Cetonia aurata
The rose chafer is a spectacular bright green beetle with a metallic sheen, often found on rose and elder flowers in summer. Its larva develops in compost and rotting wood.
Chrysis ignita
The ruby-tailed wasp is one of Britain's most jewel-like insects, its body an iridescent green and red. It is a cleptoparasite, sneaking into mason bee nests to lay its own eggs.
Sympetrum sanguineum
The ruddy darter is a vivid red darter with constricted abdomen, found at well-vegetated ponds and ditches. It is often boosted in numbers by migrants from Europe.
Bombus ruderatus
The ruderal bumblebee is a large, long-tongued species that has declined severely in the UK due to loss of flower-rich farmland. It is now mainly found in southern England.
Ischnura pumilio
The scarce blue-tailed damselfly is similar to the common blue-tailed but has an orange tail tip when immature. It prefers shallow, seeping, disturbed wetland habitats.
Panorpa communis
The scorpionfly is named for the male's upturned tail, resembling a scorpion's sting but quite harmless. It feeds on dead insects trapped in spiders' webs.
Erebia aethiops
The Scotch argus is a butterfly of moorland grasses in Scotland and a single site in northern England, flying in August in warm, sheltered valleys.
Coccinella septempunctata
The seven-spot ladybird is one of Britain's most recognised insects, its red wing cases and seven black spots a universal symbol. It is a voracious predator of aphids.
Bombus subterraneus
The short-haired bumblebee was declared extinct in the UK in 2000 and is being reintroduced to Dungeness and Salisbury Plain using queens from Sweden.
Bombus sylvarum
The shrill carder bee is named for its high-pitched buzz and is one of the UK's rarest bumblebees, restricted to a handful of sites in south Wales and the Thames corridor.
Hesperia comma
The silver-spotted skipper is restricted to short-grazed chalk grassland in southern England. It has expanded its range following targeted conservation of its habitat.
Plebejus argus
The silver-studded blue is a heathland specialist, named for the metallic studs on its underwing. It has a remarkable relationship with ants that tend its larvae.
Argynnis paphia
The silver-washed fritillary is the largest of Britain's fritillaries, a spectacular sight gliding through oak woodland glades in high summer.
Autographa gamma
The silver Y is one of Britain's most abundant moths and a significant migrant, named for the Y-shaped silver mark on each forewing. Millions arrive from Europe each year.
Zygaena filipendulae
The six-spot burnet is a day-flying moth of chalk grassland and coastal cliffs, its metallic black wings marked with six vivid red spots. It is highly unpalatable to predators.
Cupido minimus
Britain's smallest butterfly, the small blue is a localised species of chalk and limestone grassland where kidney vetch grows. Colonies are small and vulnerable.
Deilephila porcellus
The small elephant hawk-moth is a more localised relative of the elephant hawk-moth, found on chalk and limestone grassland where bedstraws grow.
Coenonympha pamphilus
The small heath is Britain's smallest brown butterfly, found in open grassland and heathland, always settling with wings closed to show the mottled underside.
Boloria selene
The small pearl-bordered fritillary is very similar to the pearl-bordered but slightly smaller and with a more complete ring of pearls on its underwing.
Ceriagrion tenellum
The small red damselfly is one of Britain's rarest damselflies, restricted to boggy heathland in southern England and south Wales where sphagnum moss grows.
Thymelicus sylvestris
The small skipper is a golden-orange butterfly of rough grassland, darting rapidly from flower to flower. Its antennae tips are orange beneath, distinguishing it from the Essex skipper.
Aglais urticae
Once one of Britain's commonest butterflies, the small tortoiseshell has declined significantly and the reasons are poorly understood, possibly linked to a parasitoid fly.
Pieris rapae
The small white is found throughout Britain, often in gardens. It resembles the large white but is noticeably smaller and causes less damage to brassicas.
Rhagonycha fulva
The soldier beetle, or bloodsucker beetle, is common on summer flowers, particularly hogweed and ragwort. Despite the name it is harmless; pairs are often seen mating.
Aeshna cyanea
The southern hawker is the inquisitive dragonfly that will approach and hover in front of observers. It is common at ponds and gardens in southern Britain.
Leptophyes punctatissima
The speckled bush-cricket is a small, bright-green cricket with reddish-brown speckles. It lives in shrubs and nettles, its song too high-pitched for many adult ears.
Pararge aegeria
The speckled wood is a butterfly of woodland rides and edges, often seen perching in a sunlit spot, defending its territory against rival males.
Pseudopanthera macularia
The speckled yellow is an attractive day-flying moth of woodland rides in southern Britain, its yellow wings dappled with dark brown spots.
Lucanus cervus
The stag beetle is Britain's largest beetle and one of its most iconic insects. Males have enormously enlarged mandibles used in wrestling contests. Larvae take up to seven years to develop in rotting wood.
Bibio marci
St Mark's flies emerge around St Mark's Day (25 April) in large numbers, dangling their legs as they fly slowly over vegetation. Males swarm to attract females.
Perla bipunctata
Stoneflies are ancient insects whose larvae require clean, well-oxygenated water, making them excellent bioindicators of river health. Adults are short-lived and rarely eat.
Stenobothrus lineatus
The stripe-winged grasshopper is a localised species of short chalk and limestone grassland in southern England, declining with the loss of traditional downland management.
Papilio machaon
Britain's largest butterfly, the swallowtail is now restricted to the Norfolk Broads where its sole foodplant milk parsley grows. The distinctive subspecies britannicus is entirely endemic.
Chrysolina graminis
The tansy beetle is one of Britain's rarest beetles, restricted to a short stretch of the River Ouse near York. Its brilliant metallic green is extraordinary.
Andrena fulva
The tawny mining bee is a common spring solitary bee, the female a rich fox-red colour. It nests in lawns and paths, creating small volcano-like mounds of soil.
Bombus hypnorum
The tree bumblebee colonised Britain naturally in 2001 and has since spread rapidly across the country. It readily nests in bird boxes and has a distinctive ginger-thorax and white tail.
Dolichovespula sylvestris
The tree wasp builds small, egg-shaped papery nests suspended from branches and in hedgerows. It is smaller and less aggressive than the common wasp.
Adalia bipunctata
The two-spot ladybird has declined significantly, partly through competition from the invasive harlequin ladybird. It shows remarkable variation, with a black-and-red form common in industrial areas.
Coenagrion pulchellum
The variable damselfly is similar to the azure damselfly but rarer, found at well-vegetated fen ditches and broads in England and Ireland.
Carabus violaceus
The violet ground beetle has beautiful iridescent violet edges to its wing cases and is a fast-running nocturnal predator of gardens, farmland and woodland.
Lasiommata megera
The wall brown has declined dramatically inland but remains common on coastal cliffs. It basks conspicuously on warm surfaces to regulate body temperature.
Clytus arietis
The wasp beetle is a longhorn beetle that mimics the common wasp remarkably well in both pattern and jerky movements, deterring would-be predators.
Notonecta glauca
The common backswimmer or water boatman swims on its back using its hindlegs as oars. It is a voracious predator that can give a painful bite and colonises new ponds rapidly.
Nepa cinerea
The water scorpion is a remarkable aquatic bug with grasping forelegs for catching prey and a long breathing tube that extends from the rear of its abdomen.
Ranatra linearis
The water stick insect is an extraordinarily slender aquatic bug that ambushes prey in well-vegetated ponds. It has a long breathing tube like the water scorpion.
Ctenophthalmus nobilis
A specialist flea found on the water vole, its fortunes closely tied to that of its endangered host.
Limenitis camilla
The white admiral glides elegantly through dappled woodland shade, its black and white wings contrasting with the dark woodland interior.
Leucorrhinia dubia
The white-faced darter is one of Britain's rarest dragonflies, restricted to sphagnum bogs in Scotland and a few reintroduction sites in England.
Platycnemis pennipes
The white-legged damselfly is found along slow rivers and canals in England, the male pale blue with distinctive white paddle-shaped legs held open in display.
Satyrium w-album
The white-letter hairstreak is named for the W-shaped white streak on its underwing. It declined dramatically following Dutch elm disease but is recovering on wych elm.
Bombus lucorum
The white-tailed bumblebee is very similar to the buff-tailed but with a clean white tail. It is one of the first bumblebees to emerge in spring and is found throughout Britain.
Anthidium manicatum
The wool carder bee is named for the female's habit of scraping plant fibres to line her nest cells. Males are unusually large and aggressively defend flower patches.
Lasius flavus
The yellow meadow ant lives underground and is rarely seen, but its dome-shaped anthills are a characteristic feature of old, undisturbed grassland throughout Britain.