The UK's smallest hawker, the hairy dragonfly is mostly black in colour, but has a distinctively hairy thorax. It can be found in grazing marshes and flooded gravel pits, and along canals…

Barnacles are so common on our rocky shores that you've probably never really noticed them. They're the little grey bumps covering the rocks that hurt your feet when you're…

The clouded yellow is a migrant that arrives here from May onwards. Usually, only small numbers turn up, but some years see mass migrations. It prefers open habitats, particularly chalk grassland…

A common dragonfly of ponds, lakes and canals near woodland, the southern hawker can be seen patrolling the water or 'hawking' through woodland rides. A fast-flying species, it will…

Did you know we have colourful corals in UK seas? Pink sea fans are a type of horny coral - related to the sea fans found in the tropics. Don't be fooled by their name though, pink sea fans…

The water scorpion is not a true scorpion, but it certainly looks like one! An underwater predator, it uses its front pincer-like legs to catch its prey. Its tail actually acts as a kind of '…