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Insects & minibeasts

13 discoveries with Puschel and Flauschi.

Twelve encounters with eight insects and four other small animals. All are animals, but not all are insects. Watch calmly and leave their homes intact.

Puschel and Flauschi keep their distance while watching a honeybee on a flower.

Insect

Discover the honeybee

An adult honeybee has six legs and two antennae. Workers collect nectar, a sweet flower liquid, and pollen.

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Flauschi and Puschel watch a buff-tailed bumblebee on clover.

Insect

Discover the buff-tailed bumblebee

Bumblebees of the buff-tailed group look rounded and hairy, often with yellow bands and a pale tail. They are bees with six legs.

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A peacock butterfly rests with open wings on a flower while both Wusels watch.

Insect

Discover the peacock butterfly

A peacock butterfly has large eye-like spots on its upper wings that can startle predators. Adults drink nectar; caterpillars eat nettle leaves.

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The Wusels watch a seven-spot ladybird on a green leaf.

Insect

Discover the seven-spot ladybird

Seven black spots on red wing cases help identify this ladybird. The hard cases protect thin flight wings beneath.

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Puschel and Flauschi make room for a red wood ant in the leaf litter.

Insect

Discover the red wood ant

Wood ants have six legs and bent antennae. Their large nest mounds contain many small plant pieces.

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The Wusels watch a southern hawker dragonfly from a dry place on the bank.

Insect

Discover the southern hawker dragonfly

The southern hawker is a dragonfly. Its larvae live in water.

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Puschel listens while Flauschi watches a great green bush-cricket in the grass.

Insect

Discover the great green bush-cricket

The great green bush-cricket has six legs and very long antennae. Strong hind legs help it jump.

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Puschel and Flauschi watch a dark, gleaming forest dung beetle in the leaf litter.

Insect

Discover the forest dung beetle

The dor beetle is a rounded dark beetle that may shine blue or violet. Its wing cases have lengthwise grooves.

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Flauschi points from outside towards a European garden spider teaching model under museum glass; Puschel watches with a notebook.

Arachnid · not an insect

Discover the european garden spider

A garden cross spider has eight legs and builds a catching web. A cross-shaped pattern on the abdomen can be a clue, but varies.

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Puschel and Flauschi watch a Roman snail on a damp mossy stone.

Mollusc · not an insect

Discover the roman snail

A Roman snail carries a coiled shell and glides on a broad muscle called its foot. A mucus trail helps.

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The Wusels watch an earthworm beside a leaf and a natural soil burrow.

Annelid · not an insect

Discover the common earthworm

An earthworm has many ring-like body sections and no legs. Oxygen enters its body through moist skin.

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Flauschi and Puschel observe a rough woodlouse in damp leaf litter beside bark.

Crustacean · not an insect

Discover the common rough woodlouse

Woodlice are land-living crustaceans, not insects. Adults have fourteen walking legs under segmented armour.

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The equally sized Wusels watch a bee on a flower from a distance.

Why do bees visit flowers?

Bees find food in flowers: sweet nectar and pollen. During visits they can carry pollen to another flower.

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