91热爆

New Royal Mail stamps to celebrate UK's brilliant bugs

  • Published
Painted Lady ButterflyImage source, Royal Mail
Image caption,

There are six stamps in the set, each featuring a pollinating insect - one that moves pollen between plants so that they can reproduce.

Image source, Royal Mail
Image caption,

The set includes this common carder bee as well as other "often overlooked" pollinators such as moths, beetles, hoverflies and wasps.

Image source, Royal Mail
Image caption,

Each stamp shows the insect on the type of flower that it often visits. Here's the elephant hawk-moth on honeysuckle - great name!

Image source, Royal Mail
Image caption,

They might be small but this longhorn beetle, along with the other pollinating insects, does an important job moving pollen from one plant to another.

Image source, Royal Mail
Image caption,

This marmalade hoverfly gets its name from its orange colour, and the different sized black bands across its body - 'thin cut', 'thick cut' - just like marmalade.

Image source, Royal Mail
Image caption,

And last in this set is the colourful, glittering, metallic ruby-tailed wasp.

Image source, Royal Mail
Image caption,

They're all part of the Royal Mail's new stamp collection illustrated by wildlife artist Richard Lewington.