Collecting ferns

Unfurling fern by oom_endro

 As with any group you choose for this assignment, you will have to learn a bit of technical descriptive language. The BPS have produced this booklet for beginners which illustrates the basic terms in conjunction with photos and descriptions of the country's most common species. It seems like a good (and free) place to start - and pragmatically, will help you decide if you're likely to be able to visit the sort of places where they live (woodlands and streambanks are good hunting grounds, as well as walls, rocky outcrops and uplands). Having said that, I know of at least three species which are only a few hundred yards' walk from my office. But lots of the distinguishing features of ferns can be quite small... you'll really have to progress to one of the dichotomous keys to be sure.

When you go out collecting, you'll need to make a note of  exactly where you've found your fern and some details about its habitat. You might like to take a photo of it growing in situ - the growth form of a fern can be usefully diagnostic. Some species grow up in a tuft like a shuttlecock, whereas other fronds are more solitary. Some ferns prefer more acid conditions, some more alkaline.

When you take a sample of it (and you don't want to decimate the entire plant of course, as happened regrettably as part of 'Pteridomania') - you need to include the entire stipe (the 'stem') right down to the ground, because it may have scales that will help you identify the species. Likewise, you should look on the back of the fronds and choose one that shows sori (where spores develop) as the shape of sori can also be very useful. Try to choose a frond that isn't nibbled or otherwise damaged.

I've found it fine to collect ferns in plastic bags, popping in a piece of paper as a label. However, you could also use a jeweller's tag method for labelling (something like this), enabling different specimens to share a bag!  If you can't attend to them immediately on returning home, they will be ok for day or two sealed in their bag in the fridge. Ideally though, you want to get them pressing as soon as possible. You can even take your press into the field with you.

Read on for advice about identification.

and about botanical presses and pressing your specimens for display.

Basket made in C19th California by a Washoe craftsperson - of willow and fern stipes.

Identifying your winter trees

Van Gogh's View of Arles with its wintery willow twigs.

When it comes to identification you'll probably need a hand lens, though it's not always essential. Sometimes it's nice to see your specimens under a dissecting microscope, so you're more than welcome to bring them in to use the ones in OJ17.

There are a lot of tree identification guides out there, but many are of limited use unless the tree is in leaf, though sometimes they will give you a helpful idealised silhouette. You might want to use one in conjunction with specialist winter guides:

The Field Studies Council have produced an excellent booklet called 'A guide to the identification of deciduous broad-leaved trees and shrubs in winter'. We have a few copies you can borrow, and there are some in the library. It's only £6 though to buy, so would not break the bank. It relies mostly on features of the buds (what shape they are, whether they're opposite or alternate, their size, etc.) and has line drawings.

The FSC more recently brought out a photographic guide too, and I have lots of copies of this too. It's a nice companion to the one above, because it can be useful to see the real size and colour of the specimens.

Both use clear dichotomous keys, and you will remember from the Official Guidance for this assignment that you must show fully how you've worked through such a key for at least two of your specimens.

You can also try out this online dichotomous key from SAPS (Science and Plants for Schools) which is similar, but I'm not sure the pictures are quite as clear.

You might recognise the male catkins of hazel - but maybe not this flamboyant (though tiny) female flower? Image by Velela

(Stace's 'New Flora of the British Isles' is the standard key for British vascular plants, and it includes trees. But it won't be much use to you because it requires information about the leaves - which you won't have. So you don't have to worry about its rather fearsome reputation.)

With regards to preservation, there's not much you can do with winter twigs as they are already quite dry - just keep them in a warmish dry place. If you feel you want to, you can press them for a while in a botanical press. This might be particularly useful if you've got extra parts to your specimen like catkins.

Read on for presentation and labelling advice.

Lichen identification

CC image by Jim McCulloch

Lichens grow on all sorts of substrate - bark, wood, stone, soil, even moss and other lichens. This is a useful identification feature. You can collect many species just from twigs -  the Field Studies Council have produced a guide. We have copies of this you can borrow, and similar ones for other lichen habitats. They're very cheap if you want to buy one. The reverse has a lateral key which encourages you to look at the lichens' forms and introduces you to some of the descriptive terminology.

I think it's very good. But the pictures are quite small, and it's nice to have a reliable alternative to check against. I think Alan Silverside's lichen pages are an excellent online option once you've got an idea of what your species or family might be. His photos are very clear and come with a detailed description of the species. Mike Sutcliffe's British Lichens site is also a reliable place to look for photographs.

You might want to have a look at this 'Key to Nature' online key for lichens on twigs in England.
It's been developed by Reliable Lichen Experts so should work well. Alternatively the same authors have written a printoutable similar key which you can download here.

Luxuriant Scottish Usnea. CC image by Nick Rowland.

The Lichen Bible though is Frank Dobson's book 'Lichens - an illustrated guide to the British and Irish species'. Once you've had a go with the FSC guide you should really brace yourself and look at this tome. There's a copy in the library and we do also have a couple of copies you can borrow. It's got detailed descriptions and several types of key. (If you remember, you must show in your field notebook that you can run species through the key). At first you might feel overwhelmed, but it's logically set out - and most of the species will be irrelevant to your own mystery lichens at the moment, since many are rare or restricted geographically or by substrate. I'm not claiming to be an expert, but if you arrange to see me, we can look at the key together and I can give you some help.  (It's certainly not cheap, but if it turns out you have the lichen bug you might want to buy a copy - though beware, old editions have black and white photos not colour).

An interesting thing about Dobson is that he includes chemical tests where they're relevant. This can be a real boon when you're in a lichen-identifying dilemma. There aren't tests for everything, but they can be really useful in confirming or denying your hunch and choosing between similar-looking species. There are three main chemicals (which I can provide), and if you get really into it there's even the option of cutting sections, making slides and adding other chemicals to them whilst looking down the microscope. Am I getting carried away? Very possibly. Most of this is not necessary unless you get super keen.

Read on for information about  how to label and present your specimens.

Harris Tweed, made in the Outer Hebrides, was traditionally dyed with Parmelia lichens. They gave it a distinctive smell! Image by PKM.

Identifying mosses and liverworts

Mosses can seem daunting to identify - and some mosses are definitely harder than others. However, some can be quite distinctive, and there are common species which can provide success and encouragement. (Some mosses have stupidly small leaves and should be put somewhere safe for when you're feeling more bryologically confident).

The FSC (in fact, specifically Martin Godfrey, my erstwhile Moss Tutor) has produced a little fold-out photo guide to mosses and liverworts of towns and gardens. It's only £3.30 so won't break the bank. The photos are really good as they capture the different forms of these common species rather well. It would be an excellent start to get your eye in (although I am obliged to say that you should still examine your finds under a microscope for certainty and the sheer pleasure of it).

You should also check out the British Bryological Society's website, where you can download for free the field key from their recent (lavishly illustrated) fieldguide. There are also links to all the species descriptions and photos from the book. I have a hard copy you can look at - as a budding bryologist you might eventually like to order one from here. I've had some success using this in the field and I do recommend it, although the number of species is rather off-putting to the beginner, and the binding is so flimsy that mine's fallen apart already. And I'm sure there are some issues with some parts of the key. But it's certainly worth trying as the key is supposed to work with just a hand lens.

So, the above field guide is very nice and glossy, but sometimes its lack of detailed illustrations leaves you wondering whether you could really ever know whether your identification is right - at which point Dave M and I always like to turn to one of the Moss Classics, E V Watson's 'British Mosses and Liverworts'. We have a couple of copies of this and there are a couple in the library. It was first written in 1955 and revised twice - but it's still really useful (though you may need to look up the most recent species names). It has lots of clear drawings of what you'd see under a light microscope (the cell structure of moss leaves is very diagnostic, and may I say lovely). If you want, you can get a second-hand copy reasonably cheaply. You are very welcome to come to the field centre and use our copies along with the microscopes.

The hard core might also turn to A J E Smith's ' The Moss Flora of Britain and Ireland' - we have a copy of this too, but it makes my head hurt.

PD image by Terrific

There are some habitat-specific resources you could try - there's a booklet you can print showing 'Mosses and Liverworts of Town and Garden' on the BBS website, and we have a book called 'Mosses and Liverworts of Woodland' (by Alan Perry). These describe whole plants, which can be a useful way in, but for this assignment you need to prove you're doing more than just matching pictures with your specimen. So you're going to have to face one of the keys above at some point.

At first it can be tricky to even work out which features you're supposed to be looking at (and there's a certain amount of terminology - though the BBS guide does try to limit this) - so do seek our help if you'd like.

Here's some information on collecting and labelling them.

Identifying fungi

Debivort's mushroom silhouettes

We have plenty of copies of two major field guides that you can borrow - these are a good place to start. They have photographic illustrations and between them are very comprehensive across a wide variety of species (not just the 'toadstool' shaped ones).

There's Michael Jordan's 'Encyclopedia of Fungi', and the other is Roger Phillips' 'Mushrooms and Other Fungi of Great Britain'. The latter author has a website, RogersMushrooms (that also includes North American species, so beware), which is reliable for alternative photos. sadly this seems unavailable at the moment.
If you want something online, I recommend First Fungi.

When you begin, you'll find yourself flicking randomly through the books trying to match the pictures to your specimen - and this is fine, because you'll start to get a feel for the different families and their characteristics. When comparing descriptions of species, there are glossaries to help you get to grips with the terminology (there's quite a lot of it).

If I had a mystery mushroom, I would start by making notes in my field notebook about the features like the colour and shape of the pores or gills...

.. the colour of the cap and whether it's sticky or patterned, and its shape.. whether the gills are wide apart or crowded.. what colour they are... whether the stipe is stout or long or flattened...

... even things like an obvious smell (one Russula is said to smell of wet washing, and another of crab).

Or perhaps it's quite unmushroomlike, like this strange earthstar (Geastrum).

Both books have a key at the front, so you can try these out to reach the correct family. You will remember that part of your assessment is to show you are able to use one. These keys will not get you to species level.

However - my favourite id book has a more comprehensive key. It's Marcel Bon's 'Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain and North-Western Europe'. You're welcome to take a look and borrow the key. It's out of print but you can sometimes get reasonably cheap secondhand copies. I like its colour drawings, because sometimes I think those are better at showing important features than photos.  There are lots of other fieldguides available, and you may find another you prefer. Whichever book you're using, it would be good to check with the Natural History Museum's Dictionary of UK Species to make sure you use up-to-date names on your labels. This database will also confirm which family your species belongs to, which will help in displaying your specimens taxonomically.

There are plenty of other books around - my latest purchase is 'Fascinated by Fungi' by Pat O'Reilly. It's rather good because it's arranged by habitat and it's quite readable - it's more than just a identification book.

You might find you want or need to look at the shape or colour of spores to help identify your specimen. Spore prints are easy to make, and you can make a slide to use with one of the microscopes in OJ17. There's some excellent information about making slides of spores and other mushroomy features on the confidently-named MushroomExpert.com.

Cortinarius spores

I've just found these keys at the British Mycological Society which could be useful if you get into this subject in a serious way. I think some of them might be a bit challenging to use, though others are rather more friendly.

Once you've identified your specimen (and sometimes you may find this impossible... fungi can be very variable as they grow and decay, so don't be downhearted) - you need to make sure you have recorded all the necessary what, where, when and who information. You need a method of associating it permanently with the specimen while you preserve it. Perhaps you could take photos and stick them in your notebook, or attach a jewellery tag to each specimen. Perhaps you could put each one in a labelled paper bag.

Here are some suggestions on preservation,

also some thoughts on collecting.

This link will bring up all posts tagged with 'fungi' (including any extra thoughts I've had recently).

Images are CC licensed from IcelandicSojourn, M, Jorg Hempel, Dan Molter, Gencer Emiroglu and Ron Pastorino.

Collecting seaweeds

Gaugin's 'Seaweed Gatherers'. You probably don't need this much.

I wasn't actually around in the Victorian era, but I am a fan of the writings of the Victorian naturalists. They're often full of very practical advice. I'll refer you to W H Grattan (writing in 1872) for some tips:

At once then, to the shore, but not to the sandy shore, for only useless decayed rubbish, or here and there some straggling Zostera marina will be met with. The collector must away to the rocks, and search carefully every pool he meets with, from a little distance below high-water mark, and so on down to the water's edge, always remembering that it is better to collect while the tide is receding than as it is coming in.

He describes how the red species will be found mostly on the lower shore - they are adapted to the lower light levels - but that you may also find them growing on the stems of kelps that have been washed up. 

When you collect your specimens, you want to take enough of the thallus (the entire seaweed) to make sure you can identify it - include both the leafy bits - the blade, and the stemlike bit - the stipe. The Official Guidance for the assessment suggests you also include the holdfast, the rootlike bit that holds on. However, I've also read that you should definitely leave this because it will enable the plant to grow back.

My advice is to be sensible - nobody is going to mind if you take a piece of bladderwrack when the species is carpeting the beach. And ideally you should always seek the permission of the owner - they are likely to be perfectly happy to allow you and indeed may be very interested in your findings. I know - all those years of beachcombing as a child... you never asked for permission and it might seem absurd... but I'm just giving you the information so you know the official line. I've written a page about collecting on the seashore here.

While in the field, don't forget to make careful notes on the specimens' location and habitat. You'll need to know which one you got where - you could put them individually into labelled bags, or make some sort of label to tie on (they'll have to be waterproof, remember).

Back home, the specimens have to be attended to straight away. Grattan says:

Beginners should be cautioned against the error of bringing home too many plants at a time, or lose choice specimens which will decompose unless they are attended to before night. The first thing is to empty the bag into a basin of sea-water and select the best plants, giving each a good swill before placing it in another vessel of clean water. Get rid of rejected plants at once.

He then describes how to mount the specimens - I have written some advice here.

Identifying seaweeds

William Morris's 'Seaweed' wallpaper. Possibly not an actual species.

At first, before being overwhelmed by the 600 or so species around the UK, you might want to look at the thirty on the Field Studies Council's Common Seaweeds Chart. We have some copies you can borrow, but the chart won't break the bank at £3 if you want one of your own. The drawings are very clear and the reverse has a simple key to steer you in the right direction.

You might also like this simple chart of common seaweeds from Coastwatch.

We also have copies of Collins' Sea Shore of Britain and Europe (with drawings) and Oxford's Photographic Guide to the Sea and Shore Life of Britain and North-West Europe. These have more species and more detailed descriptions of the species.

But I've just bought a copy of 'Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland' by Bunker, Brodie, Maggs and Bunker and am finding the photos and descriptions very useful. There are several copies that you can borrow. I've made a guide to the species we often find on the 1st year field trip, and this book has completely transformed my confidence in identifying seaweeds. It's laid out very helpfully and there are lots of photos. This is the one I'd recommend most I think!

Here is a link to Emma Wells's 'Field Guide to the British Seaweed', which has a wide range of species and also keys. It makes a lot more sense to me now I've become a bit more familiar with the species. I don't find it that easy to flick through on line, and the photos are in alphabetical order rather than being next to species that look similar (as in the Bunker book) - but if you are prepared to use the keys and need something digital, I think it's very good for pointing out the important features of the different species.

There are photos and detailed descriptions on The Seaweed Site which you might find useful - it's an Irish website but most species should be similar. It includes 'alien' species which might have arrived too recently to be in the older keys below. It's also full of general information about seaweeds which might come in handy for your monograph.

Seaweed identification isn't always easy because plants can vary hugely in appearance according to the degree of wave action where they grow, how much light they receive - or even how much they've been eaten. They may not even be the colour you expect. So you do need to progress from just looking at pictures - with the help of a key you can look closely at detailed features of the algae and (with luck) reach a more accurate identification. And of course, showing your use of a dichotomous key is part of the assessment.

To demonstrate your proficiency, you can turn to Hiscock's 'Field Key to the British Brown Seaweeds' - it's quite approachable and doesn't use too much technical language. You can download it here. It's only £6 to buy from the FSC if you want a book of your own, and we do have copies you can borrow.

Alternatively, there is her 'Field Guide to the British Red Seaweeds'.  This one's out of print, but we have borrowable copies, and there is one in the library. You can also download it from the FSC website.

We also have the standard book for chlorophyta, Brodie et al.'s 'Green Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland'.  This is a more serious tome, using more terminology and microscopic examination. You might want to try it though to confirm your green seaweed hunches.

CC image by Conscious

Names change over time as taxonomists refine their ideas - so it's a good idea to check you've got the current version by using the Natural History Museum's Dictionary of UK Species.

You could use your new seaweed taxonomy skills to contribute to the greater good - the Natural History Museum and the British Phycological Society want the public's records for monitoring a range of species. They want to investigate how distribution is changing over time and in the face of global warming.

View more seaweed-related posts.

Identification guides for ferns

Fern sori. CC image by HEPrice

It may surprise you that there are over 60 native fern species in the UK. Some of those are admittedly quite rare. And some of them are surely invented by over-keen fern taxonomists creating several impossible-to-distinguish species from one. But there are enough that are common enough to find, and not too annoying to identify, that ferns can make you an interesting collection. (I will warn you that some are more annoying than others, though I think it's the case that the more ferns you see, the more you can pick out the important features of the difficult ones).

You may like to dip your toe in with this little booklet for beginners from the British Pteridological Society, which shows the features of a variety of the most common species.

But for this assignment you have to show you can use a dichotomous key, and James Merryweather's Fern Guide, published by the FSC, is a good next step. It's cheap to buy, and we do have some copies, and there are also some in the library. The book also includes the lovely horsetails (Equisetum). These are also Pteridophytes (so technically you could collect those too - though I would seek confirmation from Katy to be sure).

I do recommend Merryweather's book, but as I found out on a short course recently, for some species you are better off using a combination of identification sources - the books all have their strengths and weaknesses.

Jermy and Camus' 'Illustrated Guide to Ferns...' comes from the Natural History Museum and is useful in the field. It's got a key too. It's out of print and is always offputtingly expensive to buy, though there is a copy in the library. I've recently found it scanned in online at the Internet Archive (and contributed by the Natural History Museum itself, so no need to feel any anguish related to its illegal up- or down-loading). It has a consistent layout with one species per double page, and nice diagrams of the sori. It also includes some non-native interlopers, which you might find useful. It also has a key, so if you're struggling with Merryweather, you can try this one.

We do have some copies of Francis Rose's 'Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns'. It includes a key, and the illustrations of ferns are said to be very good. I've not tried it in earnest with ferns (although I can vouch for some success with the other groups using this book).

A baby sporophyte grows out of the gametophyte. Don't worry, you don't have to identify this. CC image by Peter Coxhead.

Chris Page's book 'The Ferns of Britain and Ireland' includes all the hybrid ferns. Yes, I forgot to say.... hybridisation is the bane of the pteridologist... you think it's one thing... perhaps it's another... no, actually it's a combination of both. It's therefore a very comprehensive book, and to be honest, probably too comprehensive for the neophyte trying to get their head around the common species. I'm not just saying this because it's absurdly expensive and we haven't got a copy at the moment - though getting one's not out of the question. I just think that this assignment is not worth losing your temper over. One has to accept with ferns that some are going to do everything to elude identification (unless you're Chris Page). But if you collect enough variety, then the really annoying ones can be conveniently left out of your collection with no harm done.

Truly Serious Botanists use Clive Stace's 'New Flora of the British Isles' and this does include ferns. It can strike fear into the casual user though as it has no pictures - you have to know your botanical terminology. However, Mr Stace does use reliable diagnostic features and good characteristics, so if you have a specimen that's driving you mad, bring it in and we can have a look at it together. It too has some non-native species.

A Stern Word: Sometimes I see ferns in student collections that seem to have come from the garden centre. Although pteridologists do love ferns from the world over, your collection should really be of native ferns you've collected yourself. Foreign and cultivated ferns will be noticed and frowned upon!

I aspire to having a Fern House. This one's at Dunvegan Castle. CC image by J Yardley.

When you eventually come to display and label them, check with the Natural History Museum's Dictionary of UK Species to make sure you've got the most up-to-date names. You can also see which families your species belong to - you should try to arrange them taxonomically.

For more information on what to include on the labels, read the what, where, when and who pages.

Identifying grasses

Lolium multiflorum CC image by Matt Lavin

I think a good place to begin is the Field Studies Council's fold-out guide (a bargain at £3 or we have some you can borrow). The pictures are small but clear, and the reverse features an excellent lateral key which will get you looking at important features like ligules, glumes and awns. The guide has 30 common species so it won't have things you might find in unusual habitats.

I went on a little botany class at my local nature reserve and the tutor was using Dominic Price's Field Guide to Grasses, Sedges and Rushes. I've found this really useful this year and recommend it heartily. It's full of good photographs, and being a little booklet is really useful in the field. There are a couple you can look at in the field centre.

Rose's 'Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of the British Isles and north-western Europe' has much more detailed drawings. It's big and quite expensive and not very convenient for lugging round the countryside - more the sort of thing to consult back in the lab. It's got a dichotomous key to the species (you will remember that showing you can use one is part of your assessment). There are detailed drawings and I like the simplicity of the descriptions: you can see what the distinguishing characteristics are quite easily. This is my favourite one to look at in the lab. Likewise, you can consult our copies.

Some people prefer Fitter, Fitter and Fitter which is shorthand for their Collins Pocket Guide to Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of Britain and Northern Europe. This is more pocket-sized and has very clear diagrams. The key is different - it's a 'single access key' a bit like the one on the back of the FSC fold-out guide. It's rather helpful to have two different approaches like this, when you're starting out on something new (it increases your chance of getting to the right answer!) Sadly it seems to be out of print and second-hand copies sometimes quite expensive. But you can borrow ours if you can't find one.

 I've recently discovered this online key from the Field Studies Council. You tick off the features your grass has and it points you at the most likely family, and then suggests species. I think it might be most helpful for someone who's already picked up some of the terminology, as there aren't any supporting diagrams or photos until you get to the end.


A classic book for grasses is "Hubbard" - a Penguin paperback first published in the 1950s. I'm not so keen because I find it confusingly detailed, but some people love it and it has very comprehensive diagrams of the glumes and lemmas etc. I do like the lists in the front which suggest species for different habitats. It's got a dichotomous key too. You can pick one up very cheaply.

If you want to feel like a Proper Botanist then "Stace" - and his 'New flora of the British Isles' is absolutely the industry standard for vascular plants, so I feel obliged to mention it. But it can be a bit daunting - no illustrations and everything's in there, including all the rarities. Maybe not a good place to start. But you can come and look at our copy, or there's one in the library.

Recently I bought Cope and Gray's 'Grasses of the British Isles'  - it's a new handbook from the BSBI and its layout reflects new thinking about grass taxonomy. I'm sure some grass fans will like it but I'm not massively keen, and I don't like the key. But it's here if you want to have a look.


The usual advice about collecting applies (though realistically no-one is going to do anything but give you a funny look if they see you cramming grass into a carrier bag at the side of a road - I speak from experience). Take the specimen from down at the base (don't dig up the roots, they're not usually important to identification anyway). Make sure you make a note of the form of the plant - is it in a definite clump? This can be a useful characteristic to know.

You want to remember where you found your specimens and be able to cross-refer to the right part of your notepad,  so you might find it helpful to make or buy 'jewellery tags' like in my picture below (modelled by a winter twig).

When you arrive home you can store them in the fridge for a while without too much wiltage. But you really want to get them identified while they're fresh, when important features like ligules are at their best. Then (also before they've wilted) you want to put them in your botanical press.

I've also written about how to mount your grass specimens for display. You should check you are using up-to-date names with the Natural History Museum's database (more can be found on the 'what' page).

Dave M. is an accomplished agrostologist on the quiet, so if you do have any questions, do come and see us.

Collecting spiders

Arachnologists and entomologists observed unawares in their natural habitat (CC image by Gilles San Martin)

Collecting spiders... by which I inevitably mean, collecting and killing them. Of course, this element will totally rule out spiders as a collection for some people (who may be heartened by the fact they can still study live ones in the future and identify many of them). However I will quote from Michael J Roberts' book (the Collins Field Guide):

"If you were to spend a whole day collecting and killing spiders, this would be but a tiny fraction of the number killed by birds and other predators and you would have inadvertently run over or trampled many others on your way to the site. Killing spiders should not be undertaken lightly but it can, if done in a true spirit of enquiry, eventually benefit the spiders by increasing our understanding, and identifying sites where spiders are threatened. Bearing all this in mind, you should release readily identifiable species where captured, try to avoid taking too many specimens of the same species, avoid visiting the same site year after year, and avoid collecting in sites which are already well worked and contain known rarities. Finally, do not collect and kill spiders at all unless you are prepared to spend time identifying the preserved material."

The usual caveats apply - you should really have permission from the owner of the land (this would totally apply for nature reserves - and their owners will doubtless be interested in what you find), and you should be aware of protected species (sadly there are only two, the charismatic raft spider Dolomedes plantarius and the ladybird spider Eresus niger). Have a read of the Invertebrate Link's 'Code of Conduct'.

I imagine your main strategy of collecting will be to simply 'grub about' and get stuck in looking amongst dead wood, large stones and leaf-litter. But Jones-Walters' book 'Keys to the families of British Spiders' has a usefully long list of collection methods which includes:

The sweep net
The beating tray
Pitfall traps
Bark traps
Litter traps
Vegetation removal
Sieving
The separating funnel
Hand collecting
and The Pooter

- so that book's a very good place to start for ideas about how to find your specimens (although some methods apply more to the summer months). There's also useful information in the Collins Field Guide. I can help you with at least some of the equipment.

I'm glad that the Redback Spider lives in Australia. It's going to feel very full later. CC image by Calistemon.

Read on for advice about identification, and how you can preserve and present your specimens.

Preserving and labelling your spiders

One of Louise Bourgeois' famous spider sculptures (CC image by AlejandroLinaresGarcia)

You will have realised that collecting spiders will involve killing them, and although this is not a nice thing, you should bear in mind that if you get serious about spiders, your records of them in future could help them out in general. I recommend reading Mark Telfer's page where he  discusses this in relation to beetles . You might also like to see the Field Studies Council's code of conduct for collecting invertebrates, and Holly Dillon's blog post about the subject.

The arachnologist him or herself can be identified in the field by the way their pockets rattle with little collecting tubes. I can provide you with a supply. If you want to bring your spiders home alive, then put them in different tubes, or you may find you end up with one, very fat, spider. You'll need to make a note on your tubes exactly where you found the specimen - this can just be a number that refers to the detailed notes in your field notebook.

After examining them live, you might choose to put them in the freezer to despatch them. After this you would add 70% ethanol to the tube to preserve them.

Alternatively, you can take ethanol-filled tubes into the field, and add your spiders straight to them. I can provide you with the ethanol as well.

(Spiders' bodies are much softer than an insect's, so they can't be pinned like you would moths and beetles. So they have to be kept permanently in ethanol. You will add your label inside the tube with the spider (so make sure you write it on good quality paper, with permanent ink).)

Next you can identify your preserved specimens under a dissecting microscope (please do come in and use ours). You really need to keep them immersed in the ethanol, or they'll dry out and shrivel up. Some important characteristics are actually easier to see under liquid like this. Jones-Walters' book has an illustration of a spider being supported by glass beads in a watch glass - useful for propping the specimen in any direction so you can see all the important bits.

The downside of ethanol is that the spider's colours tend to fade. So it's best to try to identify your specimens soon after you collect them - otherwise they may look rather different. It's good to make notes about obvious colours and patterns. It's also good to keep your pickled specimens out of the light to slow down any fading.

Here's a specimen I preserved on my course - on the right you can just see a little spider from the Lycosidae (wolf spider) family. The tube was only small, so I had to write on both sides of my label. Just make sure you include a minimum of 'what, where, when, and who' and you'll be fine.

On this side I have the location and grid reference (and also the vice-county), and a mention of the habitat (I found mine hunting on the bare earth of a mole hill). Then I've got my name as collector, and the date it was collected.

On the other side I've written my identification. I only had to go to family level but if you can identify the species that would be brilliant. (You won't have to put the Order - all your specimens will be Araneae, so it's self-evident). And then there's my name as the determiner (the person who identified the specimen) with the date.

I used a small slip of heavyweight paper (cut from an artist's sketch pad) and an extremely fine-nibbed archive pen (these can be bought in the SU shop, it's a size 0.05).

Remember, you want the most up-to-date version of the spider's name. The best way is to check it at the Natural History Museum's Dictionary of Species. Because you're dealing with an animal, you should really write its Latin name accompanied by the 'authority' (the person who first named it) plus an English name if it has one. For example,
Eresus cinnaberinus (Olivier, 1789)
Ladybird spider 

or if you're hand writing it, underlined:
Eresus cinnaberinus (Olivier, 1789)
Ladybird spider

Then you'll need to find a suitable way of displaying your specimen tubes... perhaps a little box with foam in the bottom and a lid. You might want to label the spots the tubes sit in.. so you can keep some taxonomic order (keep spiders from the same family together for example). Or put them in some kind of rack. You could go for that retro Victorian look, or something super elegant and modern. It's up to you. I might be able to find you some sort of box if you're really stuck.

spider in hand sanitiser gel. CC image by USGS lab

And a new idea: I've recently read about people storing all sorts of invertebrates in vials of hand sanitiser gel. This might be seen as new-fangled compared to the time-honoured ethanol / pinning methods. But as hand sanitiser is partly alcohol, it might indeed preserve them for a while (perhaps for a long while). So you might want to experiment with that - it looks rather aesthetically pleasing as the animals 'hang' in the vial, rather than falling to the bottom. I might have a go and report back.

Update: last year someone had a spider collection in sanitiser and it went mouldy. It was a shame. My advice is to preserve the spiders in alcohol as normal, and then transfer them to the gel at a date nearer the hand-in. I don't think the gel will penetrate the spiders' bodies well enough to preserve them alone, though it might be alcohol-y enough to keep them in once they're preserved. That is my advice.

People have also asked me about using resin, which I've seen done before, but can't vouch for its easyness. I think it will be difficult to be honest, and you could ruin your specimens.

I can provide you with some vials, and certainly with the preservative. You may find you want to buy some of your own supplies - if so, there's a suggestion of some companies here.

Spider identification

The number and location of a spider's eyes are a clue to its identity. CC image by Opoterser.

I've got a lot better at spider identification over the last couple of years. I'm not saying I can recognise many at a glance. But I feel like I've got some tools to make steps in the right direction.

A well kept field notebook will really come in handy with this group, because a dead spider floating in some ethanol definitely lacks some of the useful characteristics it had in life.

Make sure you note down what it was doing - running across the leaf litter? sitting in a web? crouching ominously in a corner of the house? Angling its little head at you and leaping off somewhere, like the jumping spider above?

And was it noticeably coloured or marked? After a while in some ethanol these clues do fade.

Was it posed in a characteristic way? (crab spiders and long-jawed orb weavers hold their legs in distinctive ways).

What habitat was it in?

All these are useful clues which you will forget if you don't write them down. And then you're making life a lot harder for yourself.

 Why not start off with a gentle introduction - you'll probably recognise these six common species from around your house, as showcased in the Natural History Museum's 'Spiders in your home' leaflet.

I've recently bought the new Wild Guide to Britain's Spiders which is full of lovely photos. It's not really got a key though, so although it's excellent for spider enthusiasm and finding out about your species, I'm not 100% convinced yet about how useful it is for a beginner to identify them right at the beginning. It certainly helps you appreciate the general demeanour and habits of the different families, which is great.

So I am still keen on LM Jones-Walters' "Keys to the families of British Spiders." We've got lots of copies. It's got two types of key - a dichotomous one and a lateral one. There's quite a bit of terminology but it's all very well illustrated so you should soon start to learn what features to look for. You'll need to look at your specimen under a dissecting microscope - please do arrange to come in and use one in OJ17. The arrangement and size of the eyes is really important. Once you've got a family, you can go back to the Wild Guide, or look at

the Collins Field Guide to Spiders of Britain and Northern Europe by MJ Roberts (of which we have lots of copies too). This has detailed illustrations which can get you to the right genus or species.You may have to look closely at the epigyne (reproductive opening) of a female spider, or the palps of the male (also involved in reproduction). It also has a wealth of colour plates to show the whole animals. These look slightly confusing to begin with because all the legs are interwoven to fit the creatures on the page! Also, the species all appear the same size, although they range in reality from 2 to 20 mm body length. That's where the Wild Guide is a definite improvement.

There are also some useful options online, but again you generally need a properly good look at your specimen under the microscope, to truly know if you've got the right creature:
The UK Spider and Harvestman Recording Scheme website has a full list of species and links to distribution maps and photos. If you check your suspect against this and find out it's only been seen in the north of Scotland, you might want to rethink your identification. (Admittedly spider atlases must be missing information, as only a limited number of enthusiasts are looking, but take it as a general guide).

There are also a limited number of photos on the British Arachnological Society's site - they don't seem indexed in a simple way, but at least if there's a photo of 'your' spider, you know that it's correctly identified (something you can't be so sure of in many places on the web).

Lots more links to reliable spider photos and id information here.

  Read on for how to preserve and present your specimens.

Pinning and labelling your moths

My former art tutor Janie George (alumna of the Slade, no less) has been inspired by moths.

I'll be honest - I've little experience of pinning moths, though I've done a little with other insects. So I will refer you to some of the experienced knowledge-sharers of the internet.

I'll assume you're starting with a dead moth, which you'll have despatched in the freezer or a killing jar. If you pin it straight away, it'll still be flexible enough to do so. Otherwise, you'll have to relax it first.

You'll need a sealable jar or plastic box - put some wet cotton wool or tissue in the bottom. If you can put a pin through the moth's thorax already, that's great. If you can't, that's fine but you'll have to improvise something else to raise them away from the water. They should be ready after 24 hours or so.

This chap has an excellently clear video on how to relax, pin and spread a butterfly (admittedly it's the most huge and beautiful butterfly, but the principles are the same). It's full of useful tips, he's very good. He even shows how to restore a damaged specimen's detached head to its body! But I hope things like that won't happen to you.

There's a similar video here from a man at Queensland Museum - same thing, but he's dealing with a much smaller butterfly (more like the size of your moths).

I also like the photos and detailed explanation of pinning on the Insects of Iowa website as an alternative to a video.

We have spreading boards of various sizes and entomological pins you can borrow. One thing I don't have is any ordinary pins for securing the paper strips. Eventually you'll probably want to buy things of your own - in which case I've written a page about entomological suppliers.

There are some little things to note:
Unlike with beetles, the pin goes into the centre of the moth's thorax.
The rear edge of the front wing is set at 90 degrees to the body.
The front edge of the hind wing is pushed just under the edge of the front wing.
You must leave the moth in place for a week or two to set.

[I'm not sure I particularly like the idea of setting all moths this way with their wings out - I mean a lot of them don't look anything like that in real life. But it's the traditional way and I'm probably fighting a losing battle to suggest anything different.]

Remember to keep a temporary label with your moth while it sets, to remind you what it is and where you caught it. Then it'll be easier to write your final label. You should check all the names you use with the Natural History Museum's Dictionary of UK Species as this will give you the most up to date version.

Then you could add labels underneath your moth as I've explained in the beetle section.
Or you could have just one label. The important thing is to include all the what, where, when and who information. Plus for moths, it's rather nice to include the method you used to catch it. I offer an imaginary example below. You might want to type and print yours.

On The Sceptical Moth website  you can see how they've staged a micromoth (rather as you would do with a tiny beetle) - and see how labels have been attached to the pins.

Next you'll need a box to put your specimens in. You can pay whatever for a special box from entomological suppliers (like these), but if you're not feeling flush, any box with a close-fitting lid will do. You'll want to put in some moth balls (tightly secured in a corner) - to put off live insects from eating your specimens! I can give you some naphthalene for this.

Identifying moths

You might find Xanthia togata, the colourful 'Pink Barred Sallow' - CC image by Lymantria

 The Bird Guides website has an article about moths you're likely to find in Britain in the autumn and early winter: that certainly looks like essential reading. You'll also see links to other 'moths of the season' pages on species you'll find from February onwards.

Another place with moths month-by-month is Butterfly Conservation's 'Moths on the Wing'. 
The pages are based on Yorkshire captures, but shouldn't be so dissimilar to here. 

You'll probably find it's useful to be aware of the features of the different families. If you scroll down on this page at OPAL you'll find links to 'moth tips 2 and 3', which are an excellent overview, and come recommended from use on the Dartmoor field course. I can print you copies if you ask nicely.

They've been written with Waring and Townsend's 'Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland' in mind. This book is great for detailed information about the species' habitat, flight period and distribution. It also describes the characteristics of each species and compares similar species. The only trouble with it is that the descriptions do not sit near the illustrations (beautifully drawn by Richard Lewington).

But this is solved with Townsend and Waring's 'Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland' - the plates are all on the right hand side of the pages, and the descriptions on the left. The book isn't very expensive if you want to buy one, although we do have a couple of copies. I think I would recommend a look at both the field guide and the concise guide.

We've also a copy of 'British Moths and Butterflies - a photographic guide' by Chris Manley. This is a very good companion book too, because it uses photographs rather than drawings, and sometimes it's useful to see a 'real' illustration. 

There are also very good online resources - for example UKMoths  - but it probably helps to use this more as confirmation once you've got a good idea from the books above. You might like Norfolk Moths (although no, we're not in Norfolk). You can see a range of daytime-flying moths at Butterfly Conservation.

The rather lovely micromoth, Tinea trinotella. CC image by Kulac.

Like everything else in the universe, the deeper you go, it seems the more there is to find out. And with moths, you'll discover that there are 'micro moths' (you've guessed it, they're generally, though not exclusively, small). And there are a lot of them. And they're not often easy to identify. Chris Manley's book (above) has photos, and they're also featured on the various websites. Butterfly Conservation have a list of some more easily recognised species. But they might be something to worry about more once you've got some experience - you could certainly stick to the macro moths for your collection.

The other thing that advanced lepidopterists get involved with in identifying species is the dissection of moth genitalia. At the moment I wouldn't have the will or the patience for this, but if you really get the moth bug you might find yourself doing it. A recent book on distinguishing difficult macro moths (which includes dissection for many species) has been written by Townsend, Clifton and Goodey and has kindly been made available online. You're asked to show your use of dichotomous keys for this assessment - but with moths, general keys really don't exist. There are a few in this book, but it's very specialist stuff. So feel free to confirm it with Katy - but I think in this instance you will be let off. You'll still need to show why your creature is one thing and not another - you'll to know and explain what the differences are between different families and different species.

And I'll probably receive hate mail from the moth-fancying community for saying this, but I don't particularly want to recommend the classic Moth Bible, that is, Skinner's 'Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles'. The reason is, it shows the moths with their wings completely spread out as you would traditionally pin them. It doesn't show them as you will see them alive and in a resting position. And for me as a beginner, that makes the book much less useful. Others will (vehemently) disagree.

Read on for information on labelling and displaying your specimens.

Killing beetles (sorry)

PD image by Emilian Robert Vicol

Mark Telfer has a page on his website where he makes a very good case for collecting (that is, killing) beetles - and your taxonomic collection, as a reference collection and way into entomology, is included under his argument. Of course this won't convince everybody but it gives a good scientific reason for those that decide to choose this group.

You might also like to read the Field Studies Council's code of conduct for collecting invertebrates, and Holly Dillon's blog post about the subject.

He also summarises the ways they can be dispatched.

Traditionally people used jars with laurel leaves torn up inside - the cyanide gas released naturally from the leaves kills the beetles. There are logistical problems because you want to keep a note of where you found each specimen, so you need to keep each specimen separate, but still let in the fumes.

An alternative is to use ethyl acetate (I have some you can have). You can set some plaster of paris in the bottom of a jar and let a little of the solvent soak in (or use a paper tissue with a few drops on it). Again the beetles will be overcome by the fumes (but do leave them in long enough as it's quite horrible to find the beetle you're pinning start to squirm). An issue with an ethyl acetate killing jar is that it really needs to be glass, as the solvent will melt plastic. But glass jars don't mix well with rucksacks and fieldwork unless you're very careful.

My personally favoured method is the freezer - the beetles can be popped in for a while in their individually labelled tubes, and I admit that I reduce my guilt by not being able to see them expire. Mr Telfer says the downside of this method is that it leaves the beetles quite stiff when you come to pin them.

There's plenty more useful advice about these and other methods on the page linked to above.

Read on for information about how to pin and label your specimens.