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UK HABITAT MANUFACTURING COMPANY & SKILLS AND LEARNING CENTRE
UK HABITAT MANUFACTURING COMPANY & SKILLS AND LEARNING CENTRE

Invertebrates

Invertebrates are the most diverse and wonderful group of animals in the world. There are over 40,000 species of invertebrates in the UK alone, which can make the job of identifying what you have found quite tricky.

Invertebrates are animals that don’t have a spine or backbone in their body. They can be divided into a total of 30 classes, which include the likes of insects, crustaceans and arachnids. Often, it’s not possible to identify down to species because highly specialised equipment or experience is required.

But don’t let that put you off! Being able to identify bugs is a skill that can be developed with practise, and we’ve put together a collection of resources to help you along.

Fast Facts For a Few Favourites

Lacewings

Latin name: Megalomus hirtus

Notable feature: Associated with aphids that live on Wood Sage. Similar in appearance to other brown lacewings- this species can be identified by looking at the venation on each fore wing, there is a wide space between the outer edge of the wing and the main vein (known as the humeral vein) on both wings- this space is called the costal space.

Conservation Status: Not Evaluated

Where in the UK: Only found in Scotland in the UK - at Holyrood Park in Edinburgh, at several sites along the coast from Stonehaven down to St Cyrus National Nature Reserve and an individual was recorded on the coast at a site in Sutherland in 2021.

The Red Mason Bee (Osmia bicornis) is a small but distinctive, native spring flying bee.  Both males and females are covered in dense gingery colored hairs; males have a white tuft on their heads, while the females head is black with two “horns”.

It is a solitary bee that nests in pre-existing holes or cavities such as hollow plant stems, bamboo, air bricks, old nail holes and holes in masonry and can be easily coaxed into made and bought ‘bug hotels’.

The Red Mason Bee is polylectic, meaning it forages pollen from various different flowering plants.

Rather than collecting pollen and transporting it on their legs like many other bees, Red Mason females (along with other Osmia species) collect pollen in hairs on the undersides of their abdomen, in a structure known as a “pollen brush”. When the pollen brush is full, the underside of the bee can look very bright and vibrant, depending on the colour of the pollen collected.

Garden cross spiders weave enormous and conspicuous orb webs, which if you hunt for, you should still find in your garden, strung across paths, windows, between shrubs and even in front of doors. These busy spiders are night spinners, weaving gloriously elaborate silk web in preparation for a day of hunting to catch their prey, including a host of garden visitors such as butterflies, wasps and flies.

If you accidentally disturb a Garden cross spider on its web it will use it legs to oscillate itself up and down and shake the web, and if it is very severely disturbed, it will drop from its web on a silk thread and lie still until its convinced the danger has passed on and then it will climb back to its web.

Pregnant females are particularly noticeable because of their large body, swollen with eggs. Pregnant female Garden cross spiders look much fatter than other spiders. Females protect their eggs by building a silk egg sac, which they lay their eggs in. Once filled with eggs a female will not leave the sac, she will spend her life protecting it and she will eventually die in late autumn before her spiderlings hatch in the following May.

The Hairy-footed Flower Bee is a distinctive, bumblebee-sized, native spring flying solitary bee.  Males are gingery in colour with a yellow moustache and characteristic “hairy feet”, from which they get their name.  Females have a black fuzzy body with orange hind legs and could easily be mistaken for a bumblebee.

The Hairy-footed flower bee has a rapid, darting flight and can often be seen zipping between flowers with its long tongue extended.

Males can be seen hovering in front of flowers, particularly when pursuing females; this species has an unusual mating dance where the male mounts the female and waves his front legs in the air, fanning her with his hairy feet.

Females will use their mandibles to excavate nests in vertical faces of old cob walls, soft mortar, and cliffs.  Occasionally they will nest in the ground, preferring bare compacted clay soils.  Although solitary, female bees may nest close to each other forming aggregations.

This information can be found on the Buglife Website where you can find out these important facts about all species of bugs.  www.buglife.org.uk

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