Insects (class: Insecta)

There are 27 orders of insect in the UK, and each order contains varying numbers of species, from 1 (Mantodea) to over 7,000 (Hymenoptera) British representatives. It is impossible to be an 'expert' on the insects as a whole. Therefore, our County Recorders generally specialise on one or two insect orders at the most.

Commonly Recorded Insect Orders

These are the orders of insects to which a County Recorder is specialised to

• Beetles (order: Coleoptera)
• True Bugs (order: Hemiptera)
• Dragonflies (order: Odonata)
• Moths & Butterflies (order: Lepidoptera)
• Flies (inc. Hoverflies) (order: Diptera)
• Bees, Ants & Wasps (order: Hymenoptera)
• Grasshoppers & Crickets (order: Orthoptera)

Uncommonly Recorded Insect Orders

• Earwigs (order: Dermaptera)
• Fleas (order: Siphonaptera)
• Thrips (order: Thysanoptera)
• Springtails (order: Collembola)
• Cockroaches (order: Blattodea)
• Mayflies(order: Ephemeroptera)
• Preying Mantids (order: Mantodea)
• Diplura
• Scorpion Flies (order: Mecoptera)
• Megaloptera, Lacewings, Alder-flies, Stinkers, Stink-flies, Dusty Wings, Sponge-flies (order: Neuroptera)
• Stick & Leaf Insects (order: Phasmatodea)
• Phthiraptera
• Stone-flies (order: Plecoptera)
• Protura
• Book-lice, Psochids (order: Psocoptera)
• Snake-flies (oder: Raphidioptera)
• Stylopids (order: Strepsiptera)
• Silverfish (order: Thysanura)
• Caddis-flies (order: Trichoptera)

Relevant Links

Buglife - fantastic on all things with 6 legs!

Dyfed Invertebrate Group ran from 1985 - 2001 and has 15 years of records of invertebrates in the area, its possible to download news letters and information from this site.

More information on British invertebrates can be gained form The Invertebrate Conservation Trust website

The Wildlife Trusts website provides details with a picture of the most common invertebrates in the UK.