It's a small world with a big impact

The campaign takes place from June 21-27 and encourages insect enthusiasts of all ages to explore insect diversity in its many aspects – the incredible variety of species (more than 24,000 in the UK alone), their amazingly different behaviours and ways of life, and their multitude of interactions with their environment and with humans.

An interactive website, www.nationalinsectweek.co.uk, gives visitors all the information they need to get involved, from finding out more about events taking place locally, to a photography competition and taking part in insect surveys.

National Insect Week 2010 is the Royal Entomological Society's contribution to the UK's celebrations recognising 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity.

The society's president, Professor Lin Field, said: "One of our most important messages for this year's initiative is that insect diversity is just as relevant and fascinating to explore in your garden or local park or countryside as it is in the savannahs, deserts, wetlands and rainforests.

"There's a whole world of diversity to discover – and it's literally on all of our doorsteps."

Fascinating insect facts

Bombardier beetles can produce sprays of boiling phenolic liquid in the face of predators such as shrews – several squirts per second.

There are about 100,000 known species of insects in Europe and a quarter of those are found in the UK.

Worldwide, roughly one million species of insects have been described – more than all other animal species combined, and it is estimated that many more insect species, maybe four or five million, have not yet been described.

The tiniest is the Aquatic fairy-fly at 0.25mm, which is an internal parasite of water beetle eggs.

The Lundy Cabbage flea beetle lives only along a strip 1 miles long and 30 yards wide on the island of Lundy in the Bristol Channel – and nowhere else in the world.

YP MAG 5/6/10