Welcome back to our online Zoology Live festival. Continuing our celebration of all things insects and invertebrate, today we will be exploring insects on the wing.

Join us TODAY at 4pm when we will have new films and LIVE interviews with Museum Research Assistant Matthew Hayes, who will he sharing butterfly-spotting tips with us, and dragonfly expert Duncan Mackay, here to answer you questions about these magnificent insects.

Zoology Live Recycled Makes Challenge!

Gather together the plastic and card you were about to put in the bin and create a creature to enter into our Recycled Makes Challenge. Find out more in our Recycled Makes Challenge blog post, and send us your creations for the chance to win one of our Minibeast Field Kits complete with magnifying pot and ID guides, and be included in on Zoology Live on Saturday 27 June at 3pm.

Find Out More About Minibeasts

Want to find out more about British butterfies past and present? Matthew Hayes has been posting about these beautiful insects on the blog, starting with Spot the Aristocrat Butterflies From Your Window. Find more posts, including information on white, yellow, brown and blue butterflies, alongside research stories and videos for early years under the Butterfly tag.

Join Dr Ed Turner, our Curator of Insects, as he shows you how to find the eggs of orange-tip butterflies:

Butterflies are not the only flying insects that you might spot in your garden or out of your window. In May we celebrated International Bee Day by exploring the world of the often overlooked solitary bees.

And learn about some of the amazing biology of bumblebees with Dr Ed Turner here:

But not everything that looks like a bee is a bee! We have had a great response to Dr Ed Turner’s Bee Fly film – it seems lots of you have spotted these fluffy flies this year.

And if you have been following Professor Bill Amos’ insect photo diary, you will have seen hoverflies galore, many of them mimicing bees and wasps.

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.

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.

If you missed Monday’s livestream, you can still find it on YouTube: