One morning in a little park beside a busy road in South Bristol, a ladybird crawled along the edge of a boy’s ear. He laughed as the beetle’s legs tickled his skin. A picnic blanket beneath his knees was strewn with clear plastic pots and picture guides to insects and spiders.
This was a gathering of the Friends of Gores Marsh Park, in late May, and we were on a bug hunt. The dozen or so children there – including one with an inquisitive ladybird on his ear – couldn’t wait to get amongst the trees, bushes and dirt to see what little creatures they could find.
In this urban park by the busy Winterstoke Road (A3029) in Ashton I expected us to uncover some woodlice, and perhaps spot a few bees and ladybirds. But as the bug-hunters, young and old alike, started running up with their pots of tiny – and not so tiny – invertebrates, I realised that our little park is home to many more creatures than I expected.
Amazing arachnids
A child approached me with a precious find in his bug pot: a beautiful spider with a bright green abdomen. This was a cucumber spider (Arianella), who spins a little web between leaves. We also potted an ant mimic spider, very small and very ant-like!
Beautiful beetles
Did you know that there are around 4,000 species of beetle (Coleoptera) in the UK? Our group found some stunning ones, and not just ladybirds. Our finds included the shiny blue alder leaf beetle (Agelastica alni), the metallic green rose chafer (Cetonia aurata), the wonderfully-named thick-legged flower beetle (Oedemera nobilis) and a lovely ground beetle (Carabidae).
Fabulous flies
A marmalade hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus) stood on a leaf of the hedge which separates the playgound from the main road. A lovely green sawfly (Tenthredinidae) larva – we think – was spotted too. With many of our finds we weren’t able to tell the species, but we used our guides and also the very helpful iNaturalist app to help us identify them as well as we could.
And the rest
So many more creatures were gathered, inspected and admired by our group on this brilliant sunny day. Some I had never knowingly seen before, and all of them fascinating: from superb snails, to marvellous millipedes, to adorable aphids and more!
It is such a simple idea, but although me and my children love finding insects, spiders and other creatures, we rarely dedicate a whole hour to hunting for them. It is a brilliant activity to do as a group: sharing your finds, seeing if you can identify them together, and setting them free after a close inspection. What will you find in your local park?
- Thanks to Charlie Tallis of BS3 Moth Club for organising the event and for many of the photos on this page!
small world 
A fabulous, magical wee journal!
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