Visit to the Natural History Museum

Last week, during my half-term, I took a trip down to London. Among other things I visited the NHM with my parents. I had organised the visit so we were able to go 'backstage' and see the collection - which isn't on public display.

Biggest moth in the world!

It was an excellent experience and I learnt loads about how the whole collection works and the scale of it! It's split into two parts: British and International, where they are ordered taxonomically. The moths come from a huge range of sources, from ancient personal collections to specimens from recent expedition trips. This is why, especially in the British collection, there are vast numbers of individuals for each species.
It was amazing to see some species, although dead, that I would never see in the wild - certainly not in mid-Wales anyway!
Another exciting aspect was seeing some of the international collection, including some absolutely beautiful moths with amazing patterns and colours. It was useful to learn about some of the species present in France and Brazil - places I'll be doing some mothing later this year.
It was also fascinating to learn about the work being done in the museum. For example the weekly changes in taxonomic order and the discovery of new species, previously thought to be conspecific to another.
A thoroughly interesting day out!

Spot the butterfly(s)! - HINT: there are none!