Make your way through four zones dedicated to some of the most diverse and fascinating invertebrates in the world. You’ll come face-to-face with millipedes, beetles, stick insects, and our leaf-cutting ant colony.
Welcome to Comstock tropical house where you’ll come face-to-face with millipedes, beetles and our leaf-cutting ant colony.
Zone 1
The forest floor
In this zone, you’ll encounter some of the insects that dwell in the dark and damp habitats of the forest floor. These insects play an important role in recycling organic matter and enriching the soil.
Millipede
“Millipede” means “Thousand Legs,” but they rarely have that many - in fact, the first millipede to have more than 1000 legs was only found In 2020!
Centipedes
No Centipede has exactly 100 legs; they have between 15 and 191 pairs of legs, but the number of pairs is always an odd number!
Isopods
Isopods are cousins of crabs and shrimp. The giant isopod grows up to 16 inches!
Stick insects
Now you see them… Stick insects are the insect world’s masters of camouflage. They can blend in perfectly with their surroundings.
Stick Insects
Stick insects can regenerate limbs.
Some stick insects can reproduce without males.
Measuring up to 64cm, Phryganistria chinensis Zhao is the longest insect in the world!
Leaf cutting ants
Our leaf cutting ant colony really showcases these tiny gardeners of the natural world. Learn about the complex social structure of the colony and their role in the rainforest ecosystem.
Leaf cutting ants
Leafcutter ants travel up to 100 metres to collect leaves. A single leafcutter ant can carry 50 times its own weight!
Beetles
Beetles are the most diverse order of insects. With over 400,000 documented species, no zoo could display them all. But we have some of the most unique and fascinating species for you to learn about.
One out of every four animals on Earth is a Beetle!
Beetles
The Palmetto Beetle, a type of Tortoise Beetle, can withstand a pulling force that is equivalent to 148 times its body mass — comparable to a human withstanding a pull of 23,000 pounds!
Our other tropical houses
Kirby
tropical house
Includes our ‘Introduction to Invertebrates’ and ‘Night Zone’ exhibits.
Do you have a curiosity for the small and the strange? Then you will love The Bug Parc, where you can get up close and personal with some of the most fascinating minibeasts on Earth.
We visited the bug parc today, what a brilliant place!! We spent time in the bug handling area and Ben was really knowledgeable and so good with the youngest member of our party ( 3 years old). I would thoro...
What a place! Amazing experience for all ages. Staff so friendly and full of knowledge. Would highly recommend with the handling experience too. Thankyou!
.this place really exceeded my expectations. I did not imagine spending the whole day there, but we did and had to drag the kids home! Super Modern interactive brilliant place, with a ton to look at and le...
Excellent place for families, the quizzes and the outside games kept the kids busy between each insect house, and the invertebrates are really well presented and card for, the UV light buttons make a big dif...
Exceeded our expectations. Great small hands on experience for small children. Our 3 year old grandson loved it. Safe and well maintained play area. Recommend booking in advance the Bug handling experience,...