Suspending activity here, for reasons I'd rather not explain. Hope the Bluesky nature community goes from strength to strength. Best wishes to all. 🦋💚🍃

Obsessed with the sequin-like glittering scales of Green-brindled Crescent (Allophyes oxyacanthae) 🦋💚🍃

Deciduous/evergreen 💚🍃

Scytodes thoracica, the Spitting Spider, rescued from our bath this morning. A first encounter, rather a rare spider in Worcestershire I think🕷💚🍃

A wonderfully coloured and textured female Ormyrus nitidulus parasitoid wasp found in the garden birch tree this morning. A reasonably common species, yet it always seems a marvel. #UKWildlife #wasps #Ormyridae

A gorgeous Merveille du Jour to start the week. 🦋💚🍃 #TeamMoth

In her mesh web on a forsythia leaf in the garden, a female Nigma walckenaeri recently 🕷💚🍃

Introduced to a new ichneumon subfamily today by this lovely Xorides sp (Xoridinae) investigating oak bark for signs of beetle larvae. Monkwood, Worcs. 💚🍃

A beautiful wingless wasp, female Gelis sp, found in the garden this afternoon 💚🍃

Armchair orthopterology - a lovely female Speckled Bush-cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima) on our patio door between the rains 🦗💚🍃

Best thing from last night's moth trap is not a moth. Spectacular nocturnal ichneumon Opheltes glaucopterus 🧡🍃

A pleasure to see the first Black Rustics of autumn 🦋🖤🍃

Linyphia triangularis: queen of the money spiders 🕷💚🍃

Rhopalus subrufus 👾💚🍃

Still not what I was watching the ivy for, but this Conopid fly, Leopoldius signatus (the so-called Ivy Waspgrabber) was new to me. Falk calls it 'widespread but elusive'. It hangs around ivy blossom, waiting to jump on a wasp and insert an egg. #KentNature #Flies #Diptera

Beautiful carabid beetle Chlaenius vestitus found in the garden a few days ago, presumably attracted in by the light of a recent moth trap. 💚🍃

New for the garden & very welcome, crabronid wasp Trypoxylon. Or as I think of it, Trypoxylong. 💚🍃

It's Ivy Bee time! 🐝💚🍃

Maternal care in the Flower Crab Spider (Misumena vatia). This famished-looking female has secured her brood inside a folded honeysuckle leaf. Now she guards the eggs from ichneumons & other would-be attackers. Her life will end within days of their hatching.🕷💚🍃

On an ivy hedge outside the city, not yet in flower but sheltered from the wind, *lots* of small blue wasps - male Ormyrus, in the UK from a monogeneric family of oak gall wasp parasitoids 💚🍃

A first for me, a wasp in braconid tribe Chelonini, on wild angelica at Monkwood, Worcs yesterday. Unusual & distinctive abdomen shape, parasitises tortricid & pyralid moth larvae. 💚🍃

Showstopper hoverfly Xanthogramma pedissequum s.l. glowing bright in the garden in overcast weather today 😎💚🍃

Missed the adult moth this year, so delighted to bump into this Lime Hawk-moth caterpillar trundling down a gatepost looking for a place to pupate at WorcsWT Knapp & Papermill on Sunday 🐛💚🍃

Good morning 🦋💚🍃

Ant-mimic par excellence, tiny wingless female ichneumon Gelis sp feeding on honeydew from strawberry leaves in the garden today 💚🍃

A charming male Drinker moth, Euthrix potatoria, attracted to actinic light in the garden at the weekend 🦋💚🍃

Jewel wasp, Chrysis ignita s.l. shadowing mason wasp Symmorphus bifasciatus in the garden. 💚🍃

Female eupelmid wasp Calosota acron ovipositing in the old buddleia this evening 💚🍃

Ornate-tailed Digger Wasp, Cerceris rybyensis 🐝💚🍃

Gelis spurius! 💚🍃 @arnoldtortoise.bsky.social

A stunning Tenthredopsis sawfly disturbed while I was gardening yesterday 💚🍃

Hairy Shieldbug eggs have appeared all over the Herb Robert in the garden - looking forward to bug babies! 💚🍃

A male Yellow-faced bee, Hylaeus hyalinatus, wondering why it was so cool in the garden yesterday 🐝💚🍃

Female cranefly Ctenophora pectinicornis - a spectacular house visitor yesterday! 🦟💚😁

Hi @arnoldtortoise.bsky.social First Gelis of the season, potted from ivy. Does it look okay for agilis? TIA 💚🍃

Speckled Bush-cricket babies have arrived 🦗💚🍃

Most impressive of all the hymenopterans visiting Cotoneaster in the garden yesterday - a beautiful queen hornet, Vespa crabro. 🐝💚🍃

Eye to eye with a male Blue Mason bee, Osmia caerulescens 🐝💚🍃

Hi @arnoldtortoise.bsky.social I'm hoping you can confirm ID please of this little wasp found investigating our garden woodpile this afternoon. c2mm - Megaspilidae? TIA 💚🍃

Both sexes of the beautiful Picture-winged cranefly, Epiphragma ocellare, in a shady corner of the garden yesterday. 🦟💚🍃

Ptinus sexpunctatus, a beetle associated with solitary bees, on our patio door this morning 💚🍃

The delicate beauty of a Green Lacewing, Chrysoperla carnea s.l. 💚🍃

Beltane Baccha 💚🍃

Two-spot Ladybird, Adalia bipunctata f. quadrimaculata 🐞💚🍃

A lovely Gelis areator agg female ichneumon in the garden this morning 💚🍃

A beautiful ichneumon, Ischnus inquisitorius, found today in the garden ovipositing into the rolled leaf of Red Valerian, Centranthus ruber, containing the caterpillar of its tortricid moth host. 💚🍃

Not a sculpture, but the fabulous living bronze of a ground beetle, Poecilus sp, effulgent in sunshine in the garden today 💚🍃

Phrurolithus festivus, a speedy little ant-mimic spider, found today at the base of south-facing fence in the garden 🕷💚🍃

Four lovely ichneumons (all in subfamily Ichneumoninae) recently encountered in our Worcester garden 💚🍃

Sorry for the radio silence. Back with some moth highlights of the year so far... 🦋💚🍃 Pt 1: Frosted Green, Silver Cloud, Muslin, Waved Umber