As a consequence of their often high numbers, ants are amongst the most conspicuous of insects. In the UK however, due to our northerly location, they are not very diverse. The up-side of this is that they make an ideal group for study as there are not hundreds, or even thousands, of species to get to know.

As of now, the UK list comprises of about 60 species in 4 sub-families (of the 17 or so found worldwide).

This course will start with an introduction to the biology of ants and show the position of the British fauna within the wider picture.

We will then go on to consider ant collection, identification and culture.

This webinar will be followed by an optional workshop at World Museum, Liverpool the following week (14th October) – further info here.

Speaker: Gary Skinner is co-author of Ants, no. 24 in the Naturalists’ Handbook series. He studied wood-ants (Formica rufa) for his PhD in the ‘70s and then pursued a long career in teaching. Since retirement he has worked as a consultant and author. He is a keen photographer, specialising in macro work, particularly of insects. He is currently in the final stages of co-authoring (with Andy Jarman) a new edition of ‘Ants’.

The presentation will be followed by an interactive question and answer session.

Please book your space via Eventbrite and you will be sent information on how to join the webinar.

This session will run on Zoom. If you are new to Zoom you will need to create a Zoom account and download their software. This is all free and you can do so here.

You can use a laptop/desktop computer, smartphone or tablet and it isn’t necessary to have a webcam or microphone to participate.

Further info on how to join a zoom meeting can be found here.