Do One Thing

Summer Term 2008

The Do One thing this term is on minibeasts. On this page you will find a food web and Minibeasts Fact File to help you find out more about the minibeasts found in soil and leaf litter.

Minibeasts - a woodland food web

Here is an example of a food web for a community of animals that live in leaf litter. Click on the pictures to find out more about each animal.

Minibeasts Fact File

Find out more about the animals that live in leaf litter.

	Snails Snails eat living plant material When threatened, a snail can pull its body under its shell Snails move very slowly (about 1mm per second) and leave a trail of mucus (slime) to help smooth out the way
	Woodlice Woodlice are scavengers - they feed on dead or dying plant material and on their own droppings They prefer damp places, such as under logs, because they breathe through gills (like fish) rather than through lungs (like humans)
	Earwigs Earwigs are insects (they have six legs) and they feed mainly on plant material Earwigs are nocturnal, and rest in shady crevices during the day The pincers are used for many things such as climbing
	Millipedes Millipedes have 80-400 legs each They feed on dead plant material like fallen leaves Their habitat is in leaf litter or in the soil When threatened, they curl up into a tight coil
	Ground beetles Ground beetles are insects (they have six legs) Many types of ground beetles are predators, and feed by cacthing smaller animals
	Beetle larvae A beetle larva is the young form of an adult beetle, like the ground beetle above (the life-cycle is egg - larva - pupa - adult) The plural of larva is larvae (not larvas) Beetle larvae have biting jaws and two tails
	Wolf spiders Spiders are arachnids (they have 8 legs), not insects Some spiders spin webs to catch their prey, but the wolf spider runs fast over the ground after its prey instead Wolf spiders have excellent eyesight and can hunt both at day and at night

Photographs of invertebrates by John Bebbington FRPS.

FOR TEACHERS: A scientific investigation for KS2/3

Planning several lessons? Download the Teacher Guidance and Pupil Sheets for a complete investigation to compare the different kinds of invertebrates making up the community in the woodland canopy with the invertebrate community living in the soil and leaf litter below.

A comparison of invertebrate feeding relationships in soil and leaf litter with those in the canopy

Teacher Guidance 608kb Pupil Sheets 762 kb

Worried about identification? The FSC's Woodland Name Trail will help.

Interested in taking part in a Europe-wide fieldwork survey? Find out more about the BEAGLE project (pdf, 280kB).