#deadwoodwasps #1-24. A snapshot of diversity from a small city garden. Hymenoptera is a megadiverse insect order & a key indicator of ecosystem health. Deadwood is a valuable microhabitat for all manner of creatures - if you don't have a woodpile start one today! 💚🍃

The Peacock silhouette. Like someone cut out a butterfly shape from the scene & now there's just dark background showing through 🦋💚🍃

Bathroom ceiling friend - Black-clouded Longhorn Beetle, Leiopus nebulosus agg 🐞💚🍃

Wolf spider (Pardosa sp) mother & spiderlings on our outside kitchen wall 🕷💚🍃

Actinic bycatch pt3 wasps:.So much variety, IDs often sketchy, corrections welcome. Return to light of a favourite new wasp in 2024 - braconid Phanerotoma sp, also ichneumon Mesoleptus sp? an unnamed chalcid & interesting larger proctotrupid (possibly Proctotrupes?) 💚🍃

Actinic bycatch pt 2 beetles & bugs:.Fairly sure I saw scarce beetle Polistichus connexus drop into the trap, as it did on a warm night last year, but by morning no sign. A water beetle + 2 tiny bugs nfg (see alt text) Red-legged Shieldbug's annual visits are always enjoyed 💚🍃

Actinic bycatch: pt1 leafhoppers.A bonanza of ping things to the moth sheet; 4 taxa new to the garden including a couple of crackers 💚🍃

A night for small wonders again at the garden actinic, micro moths outnumbering macros 2:1 under the full moon. 3 Torts nfg, with interesting names: Epagoge grotiana, Eucosma obumbratana & Acleris holmiana. Sole macro nfy the ever-early September Thorn. 138/67 Worcs VC37 🦋💚🍃

RT @keithwarmie: A new and unexpected insect visited the garden briefly yesterday. The Giant Woodwasp or Giant Horntail Wasp Urocerus gigas….

Six seconds in the life of a leafcutter bee (Megachile sp) 🐝💚🍃

A drop of colour from a Cinnamon bug, Corizus hyoscyami 👾💚🍃

A few more moths from the night before last. A note about Least Carpet (Idaea rusticata) - first garden record in 24 - West Mids Moths says "as yet rare. spreading northwards" - this year regular singles to light in our Worcester garden. 🦋💚🍃

Actinic bycatch: plenty of interest again in non-moth form & three insects new garden records tbc:.Caddisfly Molanna angustata with distinctive resting posture, grass bug Trigonotylus caelestialium, brown lacewing Hemerobius lutescens & returning ichneumon ♂️ Gelis areator 💚🍃

A big moon last night & barely any breeze but new moths continue to plant themselves in the garden like seeds. Nfg Phycitodes binaevella, nfy Bright-LBE, Com Rustic, Dingy Footman, Ancylis badiana, Achroia grisella, Acrobasis advenella, Caloptilia cuculipennella Worcs VC37 🦋💚🍃

The spider who hunts spiders. In the garden this morning Pirate Spider Ero aphana waits at the edge of a Forsythia leaf occupied by Nigma walckenaeri🕷💚🍃 @BritishSpiders

Hymenoptera at Spetchley Gardens, Worcs today - two species I'd love to see in our garden - Wool Carder Bee (Anthidium manicatum) on Stachys byzantina & Median Wasp (Dolichovespula media) on Eryngium 🐝💚🍃

The wonderful Root House at Spetchley Gardens, Worcs. 200yo rustic summerhouse. Burry posts peppered with woodworm yet somehow still sturdy - a mecca for little black wasps & scissor bees! 💚🍃

Actinic bycatch: not so many extras as there were during the hot spell but still some interesting insects slept over with the moths last night: large click beetle Stenagostus rhombeus, smart mirid Miridius quadrivirgatus & leafhopper Eurhadina concinna/ribauti 💚🍃

A slow starter, but this morning revealed 57 spp to the garden actinic. 2 nfg: Ear Moth agg & Brachmia blandella. 8nfy including a gorgeous Leopard Moth (my 2nd), Box-tree Moth (infrequent nowadays), Dusky Thorn, Lesser YU, Wormwood Pug. Worcs VC37 🦋💚🍃

I should've mentioned this sooner but (no pics) we went to our favourite farm cafe for their pizza night yday & halfway through the meal a Hummingbird Hawk-moth appeared inside & hovered round our table like a total sprite & it was probably the most transfixing thing ever 🦋💚🍃.

The first Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) of the year in the garden, always a joy to behold this beautiful migrant butterfly 🦋💚🍃