Collecting marine molluscs

Don't forget your notebook. Image by William Strode.

 You've doubtless experience of finding shells on a beach. But bear in mind, that to score top marks, the quality of your specimens is very important. They have to clearly show all the characteristic features for identification (their presence will not only impress the markers, but also stop you tearing your own hair out). Ideally your bivalves should display both parts of their shell - which may have different shaped teeth and other features. Realistically, you might not end up exhibiting the two halves of an individual animal, but that's ok. Gastropods should also not be too worn, and retain their original shape at their tip and aperture (empty shells can get damaged as they roll about among stones on a beach). Patterns of colour can help identification sometimes, so a shell in good condition is important for observing those too.

The Nuculidae family has elaborate hinge teeth. CC image by Shellnut

You can certainly find empty shells that will be in sufficiently good condition, so direct involvement with Death is not necessary for this group. However, if you find you want to take live specimens, and kill and clean them, then that's up to you (and some shell enthusiasts think this is the way to go). People have been boiling and eating shellfish for a very long time, so boiling's probably the method to go for. (I think I must officially recommend against the gastronomic part of the process - it's not always obvious whether 'effluents' are entering the water where filter-feeders live, and you'd need to keep them super-fresh even if not - or horrible gastric effects tend to result).

I've been looking at the website of the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and I notice they have some detailed tips about where to seek out molluscs on rocky shores. You can look beyond the more obvious spots in rockpools and on boulders - you'll find other species lurking in crevices, in amongst seaweeds, under rocks, or specialised to live in areas with sediment or places where the receding water moves quickly. But do remember the Seashore Code (as set out by Buglife here) - and replace rocks and weeds if you move them to look underneath.

image by 27707

The 'Conchsoc' also has some good ideas about equipment you might like to take on your expedition. It's a bit of long list, though (as for many other groups) the most important things to take are waterproof label-able boxes or bags, and your notebook. As collecting environments go, you probably need to consider possible dangers more seriously, and take responsibility for your own safety (think about appropriate footwear and clothing, the times and directions of the tides, and which are safe / unsafe places to be collecting). I speak as someone who once broke their hand falling over on a rocky shore. I sat there pathetically in my rock pool until a kind soul hauled me out. Don't let this happen to you.

Hokusai's 'Shell gathering'

You can read my general remarks on collecting - and bear in mind the principles in the Joint Committee for the Conservation of British Invertebrates' code of conduct. Take empty shells where possible, don't take more specimens than you need, and do as little damage to the habitat as you can. Only a few mollusc species are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. They're rare and so you're unlikely to come across them - but it doesn't hurt to be aware of which they are.

Realistically, if you're on a beach where other people are wandering about, it's unlikely anyone's going to challenge you or haul you off to court for picking up a few seashells. But, I feel I ought to offer you some legally inexpert advice on where you can go and what you can do, and why seeking permission is not a bad thing, so I've written a page about that.

 Read on for information about identifying your specimens.

Collecting on the beach

Maggie Hambling's 15ft high scallop sculpture at Aldburgh. CC image by CMGlee

 I have a lovely book called 'The Essential Guide to Beachcombing and the Strandline' by Steve Trewhella and Julie Hatcher. It has everything you can think of that you might find on a walk on the beach, from seashells and seaweed to fishing litter and nurdles. It doesn't mention the legal implications of beachcombing at all, which is a) a bit surprising but b) probably entirely sensible given the complications.

'Edible Seashore' by John Wright tries to lay out the situation for foragers. He says "a tender belief lodged firmly in the bosom of most people in these islands is that they have a legal right to walk along any shore that does not sport a 'private, keep out' sign. Sadly, they are wrong. There is no general right of access to the coast and the shore is not some briny species of common land."

Precisely who owns a 'beach' (the bit above the high tide mark) is not always obvious. You'll probably want to get across that to the 'foreshore' (which is the bit between the low and high tide mark). Half of that's owned by the Crown and the rest is divvied up between local authorities, the National Trust, and various other individuals and organisations. Realistically, as long as you stay out of places with big 'No Trespassing' signs, you probably won't get into any altercations. If you can work out that the National Trust (for example) does own the bit of shore you're after, then it would be nice to seek their permission to do your collecting there. This would be especially important if your beach is a nature reserve or SSSI. They might be encouraging even so, so don't be afraid to ask (just ring up or ping them an email to explain your very low-impact and scientific intentions). They may even be interested in a list of what you find.


Rules about foraging relate mainly to just wild fruit, fungi, flowers and foliage. The 'Four Fs' have to be growing wild, and be for personal use only (you can't sell them, or it becomes theft). So if you're collecting empty shells, then you'd imagine this is of little interest to the law (gathering live shellfish to eat or sell would be a different issue). Seaweed doesn't start with an F either, and no general right to gather seaweed exists. But again, if you're not taking wheelbarrowfuls to sell, and you're not trespassing, you shouldn't get into any bother.

This article and its comments on the subject in the Guardian are quite interesting.

In short, seek permission where you can, and obey any local rules.

And if you take some litter home with you while you're at it, then you'll have positively improved the environment!

Collecting invertebrates - some more reassurance

Volucella zonaria. CC image by Martin Cooper.

Last night at home we were looking at some photos, and one of them was of the strange creature above. It was in August and we'd found it sunning itself on a trellis. At first sight it looked like a massive wasp or hornet, but closer inspection proved it had two wings (not four) and no thin waspy waist - it was actually a type of fly.

I've got an excellent book on hoverflies (these wasp mimics are often hoverflies, i.e. in the Syrphidae family) - it's by Stuart Ball and Roger Morris and called 'Britain's Hoverflies'. And because this animal is so distinctive I was able to identify it with the time-honoured practice of page-flicking. But the book is excellent and the keys are easy to use - you'd probably not have too much problem with less obvious species. However, hoverfly season's doubtless pretty much over, so maybe save your money for next year.

However, I read some very useful advice which applies to other invertebrates too. It's reassuring if you're experiencing squeamishness about killing specimens for your collection. If you take what you're doing seriously, your collecting can be for the greater good.

Ball and Morris say: "Many naturalists frown upon the collection of specimens. The prevailing ethos is 'leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but photographs.' [But] this approach does not work for a large proportion of Diptera, or indeed for many other invertebrates. It is often necessary to examine a dead specimen rather closely in order to ensure an accurate identification.

"So is there a potential conflict between collection and conservation? The authors of the book have both spent most of their working lives employed by conservation organisations and do not consider there to be a conflict. Whilst we recognise that a few rare species have such restricted breeding sites that collecting could be damaging, we believe that insect faunas are at far greater risk through not knowing which sites are important and how they should be managed.

"The collection of a few voucher specimens is extremely unlikely to be damaging to hoverfly populations and, in our view, responsible collecting that adds to our knowledge of the distribution and biology of hoverflies, should be encouraged. However, we would stress that if an animal has died to generate an identification then use should be made of the resulting record! It should be lodged with the Recording Scheme and subsequently made available to conservation organisations and researchers. Although not a good reason to condone collecting, it is worth bearing in mind that you will kill many more hoverflies on the front of your car driving to and from a site than you are ever likely to collect."

Another use for dead flies. CC image by James F Carter

At the risk of quoting half their book, they also offer these thoughts on 'Why keep a collection?"

"Vouchers: You can prove to yourself and others that you got the identification correct. This is especially important when you are starting off. The best way to learn is to try naming some specimens and then to get them checked by an expert. Nevertheless, however expert you may become, it remains important to keep vouchers for difficult and uncertain identifications.

Comparison: The identification process often involves comparative judgements (e.g. bigger than...; eye hairs darker than...). In these cases, it is very useful to have material you have previously identified to hand so that you can remind yourself what the various options look like."

They also link to an updated version of the Code of Conduct for Collecting Insects and Other Invertebrates (2002).

You might also like the discussion on why collecting specimens is still relevant and useful (and will remain so) here on ResearchGate.

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.

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.

Collecting beetles

First find your beetle. CC image by Jim Champion.

The Joint Committee for the Conservation of British Invertebrates has written a Code of Conduct for collecting insects and other invertebrates, which you should have a look at (it includes things about permission and avoiding damage to habitats). But invertebrates don't get a huge amount of official protection under UK law. A few beetles are named in Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (there's a list here in table 2A- you'll be unlikely to come across any of these but at least you'll know what they are).

But now is the time to be imaginative and get searching. Your basic entomological technique is 'grubbing' - you've got to get stuck in and search about directly. Check under large stones and in soil, in amongst moss, within heaps of grass or leaves, down inside tussocks, under bark, inside rotting wood, at the base of trees, amongst fungi and dung and dead things... You can try river banks, woodland, grassland, saltmarshes, ponds... You can use a trowel, a sweep net, a stick and beating tray for vegetation... (There's more enthusiastic if antique advice here).

Another approach is to encourage the beetles to come to you - this only works with active species like the ground beetles though. Mr Telfer has lots of advice on using pitfall traps. If you're going to use propylene glycol in the bottom you really must make sure you protect it so passing animals don't poison themselves (propylene glycol is less harmful than ethylene glycol) - some kind of grid or lid is necessary.

The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History has a page summarising some other methods you might want to experiment with. But you have to remember that you'll be collecting your specimens over a dreary British autumn and winter, and many trapping techniques will only work when it's sunny and summery and all sorts of species are out in force. Grubbing and pitfall traps will be a considerably better bet than malaise nets for you.

A dung-baited pitfall trap (nice). Note the mesh to protect mammals. Picture borrowed from the Amateur Entomologists' Society website (with hope that they won't mind too much).

It occurs to me that there aren't just terrestrial beetles - there are almost 300 species that live in or near water. A lot are tiny and difficult to identify. But they are there if you want to investigate them (and their swimming-related adaptations). Carlos Aguilar (Paraguayan coleopterist) has written a document that contains more than you could believe possible about catching aquatic beetles. You might be able to adapt some of his ideas. We might have some equipment you can use (and that would include life-jackets and lines if you're going near water).

Read on for methods of killing beetles (sorry), and how to pin and label them.

Ideas on where to look for snails

Where's your NOTEBOOK? You're not supposed to be enjoying yourself you know. Copyright free image by William Strode.

One of my own posts has a useful list of habitats that the keen snail-collector might think about checking, and I've also shared my snail-hunting expeditions around campus.

I think Lionel E Adams (1854-1945, pictured here with beard and older than when he wrote his book) still has some useful advice for budding snail-catchers in the 21st century. I recommend you take a look at his Collector's Manual of British Land and Freshwater Shells - especially at the introduction.  I find his enthusiasm infectious. (The names of snails have since changed so the species descriptions can be confusing, but they do contain the occasional amusing remark).

He suggests taking samples of dead leaves and moss to dry and sift through at home. He says "On land search all moist and shady spots, especially during and after rain, under logs, stones, among dead leaves and decaying vegetations, among nettles and healthy vegetation, on the bark of trees and at their roots among the moss, on old stone walls, and in damp cellars."

"No ponds or ditches should be passed without examination, however barren they may appear; and not only should the weeds be examined, but the mud should be sifted with a scoop in search of bivalves."
 "It may be remembered that peaty soils yield little or nothing..."
"Sand hills by the sea are very favourite habitats for [certain species]..."
"Calcareous districts are always fruitful, especially pure chalk, while granite and shale are not."  He also rejects "the desolate and repulsive millstone-grit districts" [!] as barren.


This page will give you encouragement about your success in collecting from autumn to spring. And given the British climate, it will not surprise you that Adams said "many of my most successful days have been spent in pouring rain."

The Conchological Society has lists of snaily habitats and the species you might find there (though at present, these are bare lists with no pictures).

Also you can read my general remarks on collecting - and bear in mind the principles in the Joint Committee for the Conservation of British Invertebrates' code of conduct. Get permission, take empty shells where possible, don't take more specimens than you need, and do as little damage to the habitat as you can. Only a few mollusc species are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. They're rare and so you're unlikely to come across them - but it doesn't hurt to be aware of which they are. The Conch Soc has a list and some advice about that too.

You'll probably find lots of empty shells, but make sure they are empty (or they will stink very badly if they turn out not to be). If you find it necessary, there's advice about dealing with despatching snails and removing their bodies here (sorry).

Collecting fungi

Image by CandaceHunter

There's some comprehensive advice on collecting and preserving fungi written by the Queensland Herbarium in Australia, which gives an idea of the standards required for a serious collection. There's plenty to be gleaned from it, even if you don't see your own collection being used for DNA research or being consulted 100 years from now (still, you never know).

They note that a good specimen contains all parts of the fungus - cap, spore bearing gills or other tissues, the complete stipe (stem) and any other distinguishing features. "Rotting, maggot-infested, water-soaked, mould or algae-covered, or withered specimens should be avoided." You may scoff (as if you'd submit such things), but bear it in mind.

It's also good to be aware of legal precedents around collecting fungi: the situation is a little muddled in this country but foraging for mushrooms is permitted as long as you don't sell them on. As I have said elsewhere, technically it is always best to get permission for collecting, and this applies firmly if you are intending to visit protected areas. But realistically, you'll only be taking a specimen here and there, and for Science, so you shouldn't encounter any problems in most locations.

There are many places you can look - meadows, woods, damp fields near streams, on trees (alive and dead). There are even species that grow on other mushrooms! You may find that when you arrive you can't see any... but once you've got your eye in, you'll see them everywhere.

A fairy ring, probably of Marasmius oreades. Is safety in fairy rings on your risk assessment? If you hear strange music, run for it. Image by Aviddoghug.

The main consideration when collecting is keeping your specimens undamaged and keeping track of which you've found where. You don't want to keep fungi in plastic bags or they will deteriorate rapidly. Paper bags are much better - you can pack the fungi individually and write location information on them.

You might want to try labelling with jeweller's tags, but they won't be easy to tie on every form of fungus. Perhaps you'll choose to photograph the specimen in situ - that will also remind you to make a note of the substrate at the site.

And what to carry your collection home in when you don't want it crushed? If you don't mind looking like Red Riding Hood you can use an open wicker basket - it provides excellent ventilation and is traditional and rustic. But if that's not really your style, you just need something sturdy - perhaps a box or two within your rucksack, or even just a bucket.

When you come to pick them, a few species have distinctive features right at the base which you should try to keep intact. Some mycologists would just pick by hand, others use a knife or trowel. (Which reminds me - remember that some species are poisonous, and you probably won't know which they are at the time - so remember to wash your hands before you start on your sandwiches.)

from the Opinel site

You might see a Keen Mycologist from the university wielding his specialist 'mushroom knife' which incorporates a brush at the opposite end to the blade. You might not want to go so far just yet (they're quite a lot of money for a curved knife), but taking an ordinary paintbrush can help clean dirt off your specimens - it stops bits falling into the gills or sticking to slimey caps on the way home.

Bracket fungi and others on substrates like trees and wood might need more persuasion - employ extreme caution if you're using a knife or saw, always cutting away from yourself. Beyond the safety issues there are legal issues of carrying a knife. Common sense says you are carrying and using it for legitimate reasons, for work. But if someone sees you waving a blade around and gets the wrong end of the stick... Just be aware that laws exist. There is official information on the gov.uk website  and various bushcraft sites offer advice from experience. Besides, if you get collecting early enough, you'll have plenty of choice without having to even consider hacking specimens off trees!

17th century woodcut

There's one more legal note, and that concerns Psilocybe semilanceata. In 2005 the government saw fit to make it illegal to be even in possession of this native mushroom. If you found and submitted a specimen, technically you'd be in breach of the law. One would like to think common sense would have to prevail, it being part of a scientific project. However I am not a lawyer.

Read on for information about identification
or about preservation techniques.