Welcome to our online Zoology Live festival. To celebrate National Insect Week, we are starting our Zoology Live online festival with a two-day celebration of minibeasts.

Joins us at TODAY at 4pm for tips on finding minibeasts on the ground and in the trees, and LIVE interviews with Dr Ed Turner, Dr Richard Preece and Kate Howlett from the Museum.

Zoology Live Wildlife Challenge!

Take part in our Zoology Live Wildlife Challenge and record your wildlife sightings in our Zoology Live 2020 iRecord event. You can find all the instructions on how to do this in this blog post from Matt Hayes.

And send us your wildlife photos on social media by tagging us or using #ZoologyLive and you could feature in our Online Community Gallery.

Find Out More About Minibeasts

One way to encourage more insects into your garden in by allowing wildflowers to grow. Here Dr Ed Turner, our Curator of Insects, explains why:

Our blog post A Warm Welcome for Minibeasts gives you a step by step guide on how to build an insect hotel to provide a place for creatures from bees to beetles to live.

We can find minibeasts in every nook and cranny of our green spaces. Join our Curator Dr Ed Turner as he explores his compost heap for the tiny treasures that lurk inside

Another way to look for minibeasts is to go beat-netting: research assistant Matt Hayes explains how here:

We’re celebrating more than insects today. There are lots of minibeasts living in our green spaces, and they can tell us fascinating stories about the natural world. Watch Dr Ed Turner as he introduces the amazing biology of banded snails:

While some people love insects (and so they should!), not everyone does, and some insects are particularly maligned. Kate Howlett shares some of her work investigating perceptions of insect in her blog post Insects are animals too.

Want to see more insects? Professor Bill Amos of the Department of Zoology has been making an insect diary, photographing an insect a day and sharing it through our blog. Explore his Insect a Day posts and get up close to our six-legged friends.

Remember to share your wildlife photos and makes with us on social media, using the #ZoologyLive and you could feature in our Online Community Gallery, and upload your sightings onto iRecord to take part in our Zoology Live Wildlife Challenge.

If you are enjoying our Zoology Live Online Festival, do think about nominating us for the Kids in Museums Family Friendly Museum from Home award. We would also love to know what you think of the festival: you can find our online survey here.