Insects & Other Invertebrates

What is an invertebrate?

Quite literally, an invertebrate is any animal without a backbone. This loose term applies to a huge number of little beasties that inhabit our world, from familiar butterflies, moths, beetles and dragonflies (all insects) to slugs, snails, spiders, centipedes and much more.

 

A world of minibeasts

These creatures may seem insignificant, but without them our world would be finished; many of our crop plants (oil-seed rape and most of our fruit) would not be pollinated without insects, we would soon be inundated with waste without microbeasts doing their jobs and most of our birds would be at a loss for food without the world's amazing underworld of little creatures. Many invertebrates featured here will be familiar by sight, but their names may be less well known. There are so many species that it can often take a real expert to put a name to them, but sometimes, it's nice just to appreciate them for what they are and not worry too much about those technical scientific names!

Click on the pictures below to go to the group that you are interested in.

Green Darner Long-tailed Skipper Chickweed Geometer Cicada-killer
Dragonflies &
Damselflies

Butterflies

Moths

Bees & Wasps

Harlequin Bug S. tridentata Carolina Grasshopper Praying Mantis
True Bugs

Beetles

Grasshoppers
& Crickets

Mantises

Picture-winged Fly Lone Star Tick Dolomedes triton Ant-lion (Dendroleon obsoletus)
Flies
Ticks
Spiders
Other Groups