Quite literally, a ‘minibeast’ is simply a small animal. Spiders, snails, slugs, beetles, centipedes, worms, earwigs, caterpillars……these are just a few well-known examples of the thousands and thousands of types of ‘creepy-crawlies’ that exist all over the world. Officially, minibeasts are called invertebrates which are animals without a backbone, and these are the most numerous type of animal in the world. In Britain alone there are over 25,000 species of invertebrates known. Unlike vertebrates (animals with a backbone) they do not have a skeleton inside. This makes them soft and bendy, and because of this, some of them have hard shells to live in.  

In Britain, large numbers of invertebrates are found in the community of every main habitat – rivers, ponds, lakes, marshes, heathlands, grasslands, woodlands, hedgerows, seashores – as well as people’s gardens and buildings.

Micro-habitats are parts of larger habitats. A log is an example of a micro-habitat and many minibeasts may be found living underneath it. The log may, however, be in a wood or a garden in which a larger community lives.

Some people regard most ‘creepy crawlies’ simply as pests, in need of extermination! Indeed some of them can be pests to us humans, spreading diseases and eating our crops, but in fact, all invertebrates are a very important part of life in the habitat in which they live. We will take a woodland as an example.

Invertebrates are found in all layers, from the floor to the canopy (branches and leaves of the trees) and they are a very important source of food for several mammals and birds. Some birds feed only on insects and most seed-eating birds feed their babies on insects. Hundreds of different butterflies and moths lay eggs on the leaves of the trees. When the caterpillars hatch they feed in huge numbers on the leaves. During the summer, a large oak tree can support 400,000 caterpillars at any one time! If all these caterpillars survived, then the trees would be stripped bare of leaves. Before this happens, the population of small woodland birds usually increases and many of the caterpillars are eaten.

The leaf litter and soil of the woodland floor provide homes for thousands of minibeasts. Others live in and under rotting logs. Slugs, snails, earthworms, millipedes, mites, springtails, woodlice, ants, beetles and fly larvae all feed on dead leaves which fall from the trees. These invertebrates are hunted by the carnivorous beetles, centipedes, spiders and harvestmen.