Explore the biodiversity of Britain & Ireland
Two ways to get started:
1. Search
Use Google to search the site directly. Try English names, Latin names, life stages, or structures:
Examples: "caterpillar", "pollen", "Ichneumonidae", "apothecium"
2. Browse by classification
If you prefer to explore taxonomically, start at the top of the tree:
→ Biota
From there, follow the hierarchy down through kingdoms, phyla, classes, families, genera, and species. Each page includes links back up the tree for easy navigation.
What you'll find here
- Extensive photographic coverage: Most major groups of organisms are represented, except birds and other vertebrates. This is a deliberate choice: others specialise in those, and this site focuses on the small and on less popular groups.
- Images designed for identification: Multiple angles, life stages, diagnostic features, and variation within species are shown.
- Broad geographic scope: Species from across Britain and Ireland are included.
How to use these images
The photographs are intended as visual support for identification, not a replacement for field guides or specialist keys.
They can help you to:
- Confirm features described in books, papers, or online resources.
- Understand variation in colour, form, and size.
- Recognise structures that are rarely illustrated in print.
Identification from images alone is risky, especially for beginners, but seeing multiple views and life stages can make the process far more reliable.
Quick links
A note from the photographer
BioImages is a personal, long-term project built on hands-on natural history. The emphasis is on clarity, accuracy, and the joy of close observation.
If you find the site useful, feel free to explore, learn, and share.
Missing Images!!
The images are hosted by DiscoverLife (www.discoverlife.org) on their server in the USA. They've been hit with thousands of attempts by bots from the AI community to download their content for training AI. They don't have enough servers to service them all, so they have had to block IP addresses (actually blocks of IP addresses).
Workarounds:
- If you have a VPN, turn it on and try setting different locations.
- Try a web browser and mobile data on your phone.
- Turn off your router for a couple of minutes to force your ISP to assign you a new IP address (they do this every week or so anyway).
- Click on one of the missing photos and follow the instructions to get your IP address unblocked (this can take days, by which time it may have changed again, but the new one should be in the same block so it will probably still fix it).
I apologise for the inconvenience but this is outside my control.