It was a veritable butterfly’s ball at Huddersfield Leisure Centre today as hundreds of thousands of flying, crawling, swimming and jumping animals went on show.
The Northern Invertebrate Show brought tarantulas, insects, snakes, lizards, moths, jellyfish and dozens of other creatures to town - and some lucky people even got to hold them!
The exotic visitors included Galaxy the 13ft Burmese python; Mr Kill, a 13in bat eating centipede; assassin bugs which give a nasty bite; 8in giant forest scorpion with venom that can make you feel very ill, giant snails the size of a sweet potato, and giant vinegaroon scorpions which squirt vinegar out of their bum!
Organiser Nick Wadham said: “We had a great day. I haven’t done the wristband tally yet but loads of people came - they were queueing out the door and down the road!
“The kids loved it and we had people from all over - from Edinburgh, North Wales and Cornwall to name a few.
“People were raving about it and loads of people have been asking if we will come back - we definitely will!”
The event was organised to support animal conservation and raised £1,000 towards the cause.
