Hawkmoth appeal

With a little help from our friends...

Thanks entirely to public donations, the Museum managed to buy a wonderful collection of almost 230,000 hawkmoth specimens compiled by collector Dr Jean-Marie Cadiou. They make the hawkmoth collection at the Museum one of the largest in the world.

A selection of these hawkmoths is currently on display at the Museum, located next to the entrance of the Dinosaur gallery, and will soon be available for scientists and amateur naturalists from all over the world to study.

They will be in our special display case for only a couple of months. So come and visit them before the end of May 2009 and marvel at their beauty.

Thanks to everyone again for your support.

Find out about our special topical displays

Insects at the Museum

Insects make up about 80% of the world’s species of wildlife. They play a vital role in nature and the Museum has many ways of finding out about, identifying, and conserving them.

To get involved, try visiting our bug forum where you can discuss all things bug-related. It includes comments from the Museum’s expert scientists who can help identify bugs from your home or garden.

For tips about identifying insects, go walking with woodlice , use the bumblebee identification key, or visit our bug gallery that includes images of many different types of bugs. You can also watch some of the Museum’s bugs live online.

Our Entomology Department is the largest in the UK and over 28 million specimens are looked after there. Hawkmoths are one area of the collections that the Museum is focusing on at the moment. To find out about the rest of our insect specimens, visit the Entomology collections and the Entomology Department online.