The world of invertebrates is small. We provide the door.
Small fields like entomology, and the wider world of inverts, can be hard to navigate. It’s a small community, and sometimes hard to know who knows what. We’re a group of volunteers who’ll try to get you to the right person. Tell us your critter of choice, and we’ll put you in touch with someone who might be able to help. It’s free. There’s nothing to pay and nothing to join.
One form. A way into the world of invertebrates.
Four steps to the programme, and most of the work is ours. You tell us what you’re after; one of our volunteers claims the request, makes a warm introduction, and follows up to see where it led.
You send your interests
A short form: what you’re drawn to, where you are, and the kind of help you’re after.
A volunteer claims it
Your request appears in our queue, and the volunteer best placed to help claims it.
They make an introduction
With your permission, they connect you to a good contact: anyone from a curator or recorder to a society or a mentor.
We follow up
We check back a few weeks later to see whether it led somewhere, and what we can do next.
The door to inverts is open.
Send a short form: the group you’re curious about and the kind of help you’re after. It only takes a couple of minutes.
Behind the form is a network of people who know these organisms well, from county recorders and museum curators to researchers and keen amateurs. You don’t need a degree, a membership, or a contact already in the field. Whatever you send lands in a shared queue, and whoever is best placed picks it up.
People come to us with things like:
- “I’d like to help out in a museum or collection. How do I get started?”
- “I want to find a local society, or get out on a field day near me.”
- “I’ve got an insect question I’d just like someone to answer.”
- “I need an expert in X for a research project. Do you have anyone in your network?”
- “Do you know a taxonomist who works on Y?”
- “We’re dealing with an emerging pest. Can you put us in touch with someone who works on it?”
- “Something else entirely. I just want to get in touch with someone who knows.”
You don’t have to fit a box. If what you need isn’t on the list, ask anyway, and we will do our best to find someone who fits. We make the introduction; what grows from it afterwards is yours.
Volunteers open the doors.
Whether you’ve spent a career with these organisms or just love them, we’re looking for curators, recorders, society members, researchers and keen amateurs willing to make an introduction now and then. Small, defined commitments: claim a request when you can, make a warm connection, check back once. See exactly how it works, try the queue, and read the agreement.