Interlopers in the moth trap

Not everything that arrives in the moth trap is a moth.  These are a few of the other insects I have found over the last few months.

My favourites were the ichneumons which I saw on several occasions.  These are solitary wasps which are parasitoids of other insect larvae, often moth larvae.  There are 2500 UK species and they are notoriously difficult to identify.  The Natural History Museum's Beginner's guide to identifying British ichneumonids helpfully shows the ten commonest nocturnal orange-bodied species but I am not sure which these are.  They are all from different nights.

Wasps were common in late summer and were of more than one species - at least both common wasp (Vespula vulgaris) and German wasp (Vespula germanica).  They were generally very lethargic in the early morning and I was stung only once, when I picked up an egg box without knowing there was a wasp on the other side..

Crane flies were also fairly common visitors but often escaped before being photographed.

The only butterfly was a peacock.

The only bee was a honey bee.  I can't locate the photo but you know what a honey bee looks like.

There was one shield bug.  I think it may be a birch shield bug, Elasmostethus interstinctus.

Other insects known to visit moth traps include caddis flies, lacewings, hornets, beetles and dragonflies but I didn't see any of these.  The most surprising moth-trapping by-catch I have heard of was a puffin!