A regular in gardens, hunting around compost heaps and under stones, the brown centipede is a common minibeast. Despite its name, it has 15 pairs of legs - one on each segment of its body.

The comma has distinctively ragged wing edges, which help to camouflage it - at rest, it looks just like a dead leaf! It prefers woodland edges, but can be spotted feeding on fallen fruit in…

A common hoverfly, the Heineken fly has a distinctively long snout that enables it to take nectar from deeper flowers, reaching the parts other hoverflies cannot reach! It frequents hedgerows,…

The pungent, rotten smell of Black Horehound makes this medium-sized plant of waste ground and roadside verges stand out from the crowd.

Look out for the small, yellow flowers of Celery-leaved buttercup in wet meadows and at the edges of ponds and ditches. It flowers from May to September.

The unpleasant, astringent smell of Hedge woundwort makes this medium-sized plant of woodlands, hedgerows and roadside verges stand out from the crowd.

A small, tufted fern, maidenhair spleenwort can be found growing out of crevices between rocks, in walls and on mossy branches across the UK.

Our largest and most common bee-fly, the dark-edged bee-fly looks just like a bumblebee, and buzzes like one too! It feeds on flowers like primroses and violets in gardens, parks and woodlands.…

Hairy bitter-cress is an edible weed of rocky places, walls, gardens and cultivated ground. Gathering wild food can be fun, but it's best to do it with an expert - come along to a Wildlife…

Found in compost heaps and under stones in gardens, the White-legged snake millipede is a common minibeast. Despite its name, it has about 100 legs. It is an important recycler of nutrients,…

Despite its warts and ancient associations with witches, the common toad is a gardener's friend, sucking up slugs and snails. It is famous for migrating en masse to its breeding ponds.

Also known as the flat topshell, these are one of the most common and colourful sea snails you are likely to see when out on a rockpool safari!