The Live event takes place at 11:30 and 14:30 on Thursday this week, 23rd January, in the Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum in London. It will last between 20 and 30 minutes. The event is FREE.
Adult caddisflies are well-known to fly fisherman, who give them exotic-sounding names like Black Silverhorns and Welshman’s Button.
Caddisfly larvae are freshwater insects, many of which are expert builders of cases in which they live. The cases are made of sand-grains, pieces of leaves or small twigs, and they have inspired some people to persuade the larvae to build with fragments of gold and precious stones, turning them into living jewellery!
The natural cases look as if they provide camouflage, but their main function seems to be helping the larvae to respire in stagnant water. Join Museum entomologist Peter Barnard to find out more. Bring your own artificial flies along.
The Natural History Museum has 350 scientists who work both in the Museum and regularly throughout the world. Their role is key to the furthering of our understanding of the natural world at the Museum where new species can be confirmed, classified and catalogued, relationships investigated and the world’s diversity can be monitored.
The new Darwin Centre, which opened in September, will enable visitors to meet Museum scientists on a daily basis as well as explore collections storerooms that, up until now, have been inaccessible to the public.
Tel. 020 7942 5000
