The violet click beetle is a very rare beetle that lives in decaying wood, particularly common beech and ash. It gets its name from its habit of springing upwards with an audible click if it falls…

The garden tiger is an attractive, brown-and-white moth of sand dunes, woodland edges, meadows and hedgerows; it will also visit gardens. In decline, it is suffering from the 'tidying up…

The sanderling scampers about the waves looking for marine crustaceans, fish and even jellyfish to eat. It visits the UK in winter from its Arctic breeding grounds, but can also be seen as it…

This slender shark gets its name from the spines in front of its dorsal fin. It can use these spines to defend itself by curling in a bow and striking at a predator.

This bumpy shell lives up to its name and lives partly buried in the seabed along the west coast of Great Britain.

The land caddis is the only caddisfly in the UK to spend its entire time on land, with no stage in water. Look in oak leaf litter over winter to see the grainy cases of the larvae, in which they…

As its name suggests, the shaggy inkcap, or 'lawyer's wig', has a woolly, scaly surface to its bell-shaped toadstools. It is very common and can be seen at the road side, in…

This large skate has tiny, prickly spines all over its back.