Stick Insect

True Wild Life | Stick Insect | The stick insect (as its name suggests) is an insect that looks like a twig on a branch, bush or tree. This unique identity means that stick insects can be extremely difficult for predators to spot. Stick insects are found in the forests, rainforests and jungles around the world where they live a peaceful lifestyle, expertly camouflaged into their surroundings.

Stag Beetle

True Wild Life | Stag Beetle | A stag beetle is one of more than 1,200 different species of beetle that are natively found in Europe. The stag beetle is the largest species of insect to be found in the United Kingdom, but despite this, the stag beetle is becoming rarer and rarer in much of Britain and is now a protected species in much of it's historic range. The stag beetle is primarily found inhabiting deciduous woodlands and forest across the European continent where there is an abundance of food and plenty of hiding places for this armoured insect. Stag beetle are also becoming a more common sight in parks and gardens that provide artificial replacements of their native habitats.

Puss Moth

True Wild Life | Puss Moth | The puss moth is a generally medium sized species of moth that is found across Europe and in parts of North Africa. The puss moth is not to be confused with the cat-like North American puss moth that is well-known for the incredibly hairy appearance of it's caterpillar. The puss moth caterpillar of Europe is not so hairy but is known to have some very distinctive features themselves. The puss moth is most commonly found in incredibly dense woodland throughout the European continent and across parts of Northern Africa. The puss moth inhabits areas where there is plenty for them to eat and so are most commonly spotted among willow and poplar leaves. The puss moth is becoming rarer as much of it's native woodland has been threatened by deforestation or air and noise pollution.

Pond Skater

True Wild Life | Pond Skater | The pond skater is a delicate water-based insect commonly found on still bodies of water across the Northern Hemisphere. There are around 500 different species of pond skater that are known by a variety of different names including water striders, water bugs, magic bugs, skaters, skimmers, water scooters, water skaters, water skeeters, water skimmers, water skippers and Jesus bugs. The pond skater is most commonly found across Europe where they live on the surface of ponds, slow streams, marshes, and other quiet waters, in all parts of the continent. Pond skaters are most well known for their ability to "walk on water", where pond skaters use surface tension to delicately walk on the surface of the water.

Moth

True Wild Life | Moth | Moths are found all around the world and are closely related to the colourful butterfly. However, moths are not generally so brightly coloured as the butterfly as the moth is a nocturnal animal and so blends in to the darker surroundings. There are thought to be up to 250,000 different species of moth throughout the world, and even more are believed to have not yet been discovered. Due to their nocturnal lifestyle, moths are known to be attracted to lights and are even believed to be able to fly in a straight line as the moths use the moon for navigation.

Ladybird

True Wild Life | Ladybird | The ladybird (also known as the ladybug) is a small colourful beetle found all around the world. There are thought to be more than 5,000 different species of ladybird in the world, with more than 450 species found in North America alone. The ladybird is best known for it's spotted body (normally red and black, but often orange and yellow are found), and their ability to rid gardens of their aphid pests affectively. It is thought to be good luck to find that a ladybird has landed on you, and most definitely bad luck if you then squash it!

Insect

True Wild Life | Insect | Insects are the most abundant group of living creatures on earth with up to 30 million estimated species of insect found worldwide. Insects can be found in all ranges of environment even (but limited) in the oceans and rivers. Insects feed on other, smaller insects and decaying leaf and plant matter.

Honey Bee

True Wild Life | Honey Bee | The honey bee is a small sized bee that inhabiting quiet forests, jungles, meadows and gardens all all over the world. There are only 7 recognized species of honey bee out of 20,000 different bee species found worldwide, but these individual species often contain their own subspecies. There are 44 known subspecies of the 7 species of honey bee. The honey bee is primarily involved in the production of honey and is today found worldwide. The honey bee is thought to originate from the jungles of south east Asia, where wild honey can still be found and the honey bee eventually took up residence in numerous countries.

Hercules Beetle

True Wild Life | Hercules Beetle | The Hercules beetle is one of the largest species of beetle in the world, and is natively found in the jungles of South America. The Hercules beetle is the largest and most well known of all of the rhinoceros beetles, a group of large beetles that are closely related to the famous scarab beetle. The Hercules beetle is found throughout the tropical jungles and rainforests of Central and South America, where the Hercules beetle spends the majority of it's time foraging through the leaf-litter on the forest floor in search of something to eat. The fallen debris also helps to hide this enormous insect as it moves about.

Grasshopper

 

True Wild Life | Grasshopper | The grasshopper is a medium to large sized insect and the grasshopper is found (close to grass) all over the world. Grasshoppers are best known for their ability to jump incredible heights and distances. Most grasshopper individuals grow to about 2 inches long although larger grasshoppers are found on a fairly regular basis that grow to more than 5 inches in length. The grasshopper has wings meaning it can migrate over long distances when the weather gets too cold.

Fly

True Wild Life | Fly | The fly is one of the most common and well-known insects in the world and the fly is found on every continent with the exception of the innermost polar regions of the Arctic Circle and Antarctica. There are more than 240,000 different species of fly worldwide but only around half of these have actually been scientifically documented, something the science world wants to look into further.

Dragonfly

True Wild Life | Dragonfly | The dragonfly is large predatory insect generally found around watery areas in both the North and South Hemispheres. The dragonfly is very similar to a damselfly but the wings on the adults are considerably different. The dragonfly is found hovering near lakes and swamps as the dragonfly larvae (the nymph/baby) is aquatic. The dragonfly nymph is capable of producing a painful bite for humans, where the adult dragonfly poses no threat.

Cockroach

True Wild Life | Cockroach | The cockroach, also known as the roach, is found worldwide in every environment and every habitat with the exception of water. The cockroach is one of the most commonly known pests to humans of the insects world but plays a vital role in the ecosystem ingesting decomposing materials. There are thought to be around 4,000 known species of cockroach in existence but only about 30 of the different species of cockroach are the ones that humans come into contact with. Cockroaches are generally not keen on close contact with humans and are only really present if there is enough for them to eat.

Butterfly

True Wild Life | Butterfly | The butterfly can be found in most countries in the world, but there tend to be more butterflies in warmer climates. The butterfly is a type of insect that feeds on flower nectar through its long and curled straw-like tongue. Butterflies are similar in appearance and tendencies to moths, with many species of butterfly often getting confused as a moth and moths with butterflies. In general the butterfly species tend to be more brightly coloured than the moth species, but there are exceptions.

Bumble Bee

True Wild Life | Bumble Bee | The bumble bee is the most common type of bee with around 250 different species of the bumble bee found around the world. Despite the fact that the bumble bee can be found in many countries, it is indigenous to the Northern Hemisphere, breeding more successfully in the more temperate climates.

Black Widow Spider

True Wild :ife | Black Widow Spider | There are three main species of black widow spider, all of which have very similar characteristics and inhabit areas in Northern America and parts of Mexico. Until very recently all three species of black widow spider were classified as one but recent research shows that as the species inhabit different areas, the three species of black widow spider have adapted to their environment in different ways.

Beetle

 

True Wild Life | Beetle | The beetle is a small sized invertebrate that is known to be incredibly versatile and is found in numerous different shapes and sizes. Beetles are found in nearly every different habitat on Earth and are only absent from the freezing polar regions. The beetle has the largest number of sub-species out of all the insects, with 40% of all recognised insects being classed as beetles. There are more than 350,000 different species of noted beetle, however, scientists estimate the real number is between 4 million and 8 million beetle species.

Ant

True Wild LIfe | Ant | The ant is a small sized invertebrate that is found all around the world, with the exception of the polar regions including the Arctic Circle and Antarctica. As with many other species of insect, there are numerous ant species inhabiting many different environments all around the world. There are more than 12,000 recognised species of ant worldwide, but there are estimated to be nearly 14,000 in total. Ants are thought to have developed from wasp like creatures 100 million years ago after blooming flowers appeared on Earth.

Mayfly

 

True Wild Life | Mayfly | The mayfly is medium-sized insect that is found in a variety of habitats all around the world. The mayfly is one of the most short-lived animals in the world and is most closely related to dragonflies and damselflies. There are 2,500 known species of mayfly generally found close to water, all around the world with over 600 species of mayfly natively found in North America. Mayflies are extremely sensitive to pollution and can therefore only be found close to water that is of a high quality.

Purple Emperor

True Wild LIfe | Purple Emperor | The purple emperor is a distinctive species of butterfly, found in woodlands across Europe. The purple emperor is most well known for the bright blue-purple markings of the wings of the male purple emperor butterflies. The purple emperor is most commonly found throughout central Europe and in the warmer, southern regions of the United Kingdom. The purple emperor is found inhabiting ancient forests and deciduous woodlands where the adult purple emperors spend most of their lives hidden high up in the trees. Despite the name, it is only the male purple emperor butterflies that are actually of a purple looking colour. The females purple emperors are much duller in appearance with a generally brown wingspan, a few white markings and a small orange circle on each of it's hind wings (the males are very similar only with the added purple sheen).