Identification forums
Welcome
Welcome to the Museum's identification forum where amateur naturalists and experts can ask questions about all aspects of UK biodiversity. You can share identification tips on UK plants, animals, rocks and minerals, and Museum experts will help to answer your queries and identify your specimens.
Whether you've found a strange looking insect in your garden, or uncovered a fossil on the beach, this is the place to find out more about it. Simply choose the relevant forum below and ask your question.
Identification forums-
Bug forum
Ask questions and share identification tips about all types of British bugs, from bees to beetles and wasps to woodlice. Museum insect-experts are on hand to answer your questions.
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On the seashore identification forum
Discuss seashore life and ask the experts for help identifying your finds including seaweeds, crabs, shells and animal bones. What unusual life might you find?
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Fossils and rocks identification forum
Fossils are a key to finding out about species that lived in the past. If you find a rock or fossil you would like to know more about, post your question here and our experts may be able to help.
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Bones, teeth and skulls identification forum
It can be quite a challenge to identify which part of the skeleton a bone belongs to, but our experts may be able to help. If you find a bone, tooth or skull then ask your question here.
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All animal life identification forum
Animal life is very diverse and includes everything from snails to snakes, elephants to echinoderms, badgers to bitterns, and squirrels to sun-stars. Ask Museum experts for help identifying them.
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Your habitat - home and garden species identification forum
We share our homes, gardens and local areas with all sorts of creatures from the natural world. Find out what wildlife you could be living with and let us help you identify it.
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Plant identification forum
Post your photos here and ask questions about British plants, from seaweeds to sundews and bluebells to bracken. Museum experts will help identify them for you.
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Foreign finds identification forum
Holidays or visits abroad bring new opportunities to observe nature, and to look for species you might not find at home. Tell us about the interesting creatures you discover outside the UK.
Latest posts in the identification forums
Wasp-mimic FLY of Borneo for ID
This poor fellow was pesting my legs and keep coming back even after a few time i waved it off...
Sat, 26 May 2012 06:24:48Re: Big grey spider - any thoughts please?
It's not a mouse spider, I think you are right with a Tegenaria, though can't say which one. The web...
Fri, 25 May 2012 22:26:47Re: Fly in a web ?
Yes it's in Leeds. I'll try to hatch it out. Thanks John
Fri, 25 May 2012 21:50:47North Wales Spider ID
Found in my parents extension, shape makes me think a garden spider but then its colour and shinny t...
Fri, 25 May 2012 21:03:41Big grey spider - any thoughts please?
This spider, body length approx 20mm - I didn't get closer as it was acting rather defensively/aggre...
Fri, 25 May 2012 12:56:58Re: Fly in a web ?
I fancy that this is a spider parasitoid having fed on spider and now spinning its own cocoon. Let's...
Fri, 25 May 2012 08:38:48Fly in a web ?
I saw this package in a spiders web. The Larvae ( Diptera?) in it was unharmed and working hard to p...
Fri, 25 May 2012 07:45:54Re: Sapling ID please
Thanks Jen! That's fantastic. Best wishes, Dave
Thu, 24 May 2012 20:53:43
Identification experts
A team of Museum scientists who run the Identification and Advisory Service will help to answer your identification queries. They work in the new Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity.
Their special interests include fossils, rocks, plants, insects and other creatures.
