Invertebrates Of Ireland

25/06/2026

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25/06/2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqhrC3TmssM

National Biodiversity Data Centre for a webinar with Kate Moore, NBDC's Invasive Species Engagement Officer.

Buying plants for your garden
Biosecurity best practices
Identifying and dealing with invasive flatworms

Resources
Guides
Regulated Plant Guide: https://invasives.ie/invasiveplants/
Wildflower Seed: https://pollinators.ie/wildflower-seed/

Invasive species campaigns
Check Clean Dry: https://invasives.ie/checkcleandry/
Be Pet Wise: https://invasives.ie/bepetwise/

Policies and legislations
NPWS Licence: https://invasives.ie/checkcleandry/
Sustainable Use of Pesticides: https://www.pcs.agriculture.gov.ie/su
Legislation: https://invasives.ie/home/legislation

Reporting Invasive species
Report Invasives: https://records.biodiversityireland.ie
Asian Hornet Reporter: https://invasives.ie/asianhornet/report/
Asian Hornet Resources: https://invasives.ie/asianhornet/

23/11/2025

Do we have more than One Stick Insect from New Zealand hidden in Kerry?

This is a nymph of a New Zealand stick insect Acanthoxyla inermis aka "unarmed stick insect" that was photographed by Beineón O'Shea O'Neill in South Kerry at the end of summer 2025. Beineón was given the task by Invertebrates Of Ireland to find and photo a Stick Insect a few years ago and thankfully he did found them. I asked him to find an adult and he said it might take him another 2 years as they are very hard to find, unless your lucky enough to see them on the wall or pourch of a house.

Stick Insects have were first recorded in Ireland (Kerry and Cork area) in the 1960s. It was thought that because Irish classrooms kept the Indian stick insect "Carausius morosus" as a pet for a few decades that our outdoor stick insects were simply escapees from those tanks. But its come to light that Carausius morosus cannot survive our outside climate.

The stick insects you meet here have become naturalised in the mild, moist climate of Kerry and Cork. They arrived in Ireland likely by their eggs hitching a ride in the soil of imported plants. Once here, they found bramble hedges and mild coastal winters to their liking.

Acanthoxyla reproduces parthenogenetically, without males. Each female lays fertile eggs that hatch into clones of herself. Globally, males were unknown in this genus until 2016, when a rare mutant male was discovered in Cornwall in Britain, to the astonishment of entomologists everywhere. Ireland’s colonies remain exclusively female, a sisterhood, continuing their lineage by cloning themselves.

Photos of Nymh courtesy of Beineón O'Shea O'Neill in September 2025 near Bonane Kenmare Kerry.

Photo of Adult (Pretty sure its a Prickly Stick Insect "Acanthoxyla geisovii" not a unarmed stick insect "Acanthoxyla inermis" like described in the Article) courtesy of Irish Times taken by Sheena Dolan in September 2025, discovered on holidays in Tuosist near Kenmare. https://www.irishtimes.com/environment/2025/09/13/this-female-only-stick-insect-arrived-in-ireland-from-new-zealand-in-the-1960s/

So perhaps two species of New Zealand stick insects have now become naturalised in Ireland. The Unarmed Stick insect "Acanthoxyla inermis" which became naturalised in the United Kingdom since the 1920s and the Prickly Stick-insect "Acanthoxyla geisovii" which became naturalised in the United Kingdom since Edwardian times.

Both have been photographed in Kerry September 2025.

17/10/2024

If your house or building is near building sites on what once was wild grassland you might have a migration of Bristly Millipedes. These tiny 1mm to 3mm fellas are harmless but can be a problem by numbers if they have found a damp area to nest and multiply. If you find some inside your home check outside after dark for entrance points.

08/05/2023

Interesting and well put together video about Steatoda Spiders (False Widows), about their nature, behaviour, potency etc. And a good comparison to their distant relations of the genus Latrodectus. The video gets the chelicerae teeth mixed up (its Steatoda thats found to have them) but other than that well researched by Travis McEnery.

An in-depth look at the genus Steatoda - the False Widows (including the notorious Noble False Widow). This is a long one, but there's a lot to talk about wi...

02/05/2023

Spider species Scotophaeus blackwalli, commonly known as Mouse Spider, belongs to the genus Scotophaeus, in the family Gnaphosidae (Flat Bellied Ground Spiders) . Scotophaeus blackwalli is most often sighted during the month of May.

Males of these spiders reach 9mm in length, maturing in the early summer, while females reach 12mm, and can be found until autumn. The abdomen is brown/grey with hairs resembling the body of a mouse, hence the common name of 'mouse spider'.

They do not use Webs to hunt but active foraging, chasing down and subduing individual prey items, at night.

02/05/2023

Regarding Honey Bee Swarms:
It’s swarm season! If you see a large cloud of bees congregating somewhere or a large cluster of them hanging on a branch, sign, fence post, etc, DO NOT BE FRIGHTENED! These bees are homeless and looking for a new place to set up a hive. They not only have no home to defend, but they are also full and fat on honey so that they have enough resources to start fresh wherever they end up. This is the calmest you will ever see a honeybee. You may see them resting on a wall as they travel distances and have to stop and rest from time to time. They swarm the Queen to protect her. Please do not spray them. Please please be aware that they will leave and are no threat, and we need them.
Contacting the local beekeeping association will get you the local swarm contact. Bee keepers would be more than happy to help. Share if you think its worth telling to your friends. It might save a hive or two.

Below is a swarm in Gorey, Co. Wexford 02/05/2023, resting before they move to find a new home.