And we’re off! With our and the @hantsbic.bsky.social funded trap out, hopefully attracting a range of moths for tomorrows Moth Morning & Bug Hunt at Portsmouth Natural History Musuem portsmouthmuseums.co.uk/events/moth-... #teammoth #entomology #moths

A bit of an #lepidoptera surprise in the moth trap this morning. I think this rather wonderful creature may be a Golden Twin Spot, Chrysodeixis chalcites, sneakily camouflaging itself against the lamp holder! #entomology

Getting prepared for our upcoming bug hunts at Portsmouth Natural History Musuem, portsmouthmuseums.co.uk/events/moth-..., its shocking how small a percentage of UK invertebrates this waste high pile of ID guides actually enable you to ID. They are a multitude and intricate in their diversity!

It’s not often that you get to call a key beautiful, but this is one of those great moments. Aside from the mind blowing coverage of the text, my goodness, but the Fungi of Temperate Europe is beautiful, in its content & form. A personal favourite is the fluorescent yellow headbands!

Awesome footage from my better half, of a swift popping in to our nest boxes! They are stunning things. We think trying to encourage some remaining chicks to fledge. #swifts

Day 6 of the @dipteristsforum.bsky.social meeting. I think I just about have the specimens still under control…..

Let’s face it, we’ve all made some question dress choices when young. But first these former caterpillars, there’s no other choice but their former skin as a hat. You do you guys. #lepidoptera #entomology

The mouth parts of this Carabid are chocker with the thalli of a, presumbly, Laboulbeniomycetes fungus. I really need to get my head around how to ID these guys! #coleoptera #fungi

It’s that time of year again, the Garden Tiger, Arctia caja, caterpillars are nearly there in the garden and looking absolutely fabulous! Now collecting to see if we can rear any wasps from them. #Lepidoptera #entomology

We rarely get to see them, but managed to spot the heads of two Swifts poking out of our nest boxes this evening! From the range of noises & volume from the boxes, we’ve think there’s been chicks in both boxes this year.

Awesome to see Sawfies, I think Arge pagana, making the next generation of Sawflies! I don’t think that they usually lay so close together however, I don't think I’ve ever seen a scar with a neighbour before! #sawflies #hymenoptera #entomology

An exciting and interesting day working on Conopid Flies at the wonderful World Museum in Liverpool, a smaller but fascinatingly odd family. #Conopidae #Diptera #Entomology

Not something you get to see everyday! This Lackey, Malacosoma neustria, caterpillar didn't manage to spin it's outer silk protection, so we get a view of what a pupating caterpillar looks like! The lighter caterpillar was last night and the darker this morning. #entomology #lepidoptera

And we’re off! The first of our recently collected Lackey caterpillars is pupating, fingers crossed to finally get a wasp out of a caterpillar, only managed Moths & Tachinids so far. I’m beginning to think It’s personal! #Moths #Wasps #Entomology

Today has been a day engaged in entomological necromancy, of a sort. Collecting a series of these mummified aphids, from which will, hopefully any day now, arise their likely cause, Aphidiinae wasps! #entomology #hymneoptera #wasps

A day spent cataloguing Sawfly’s is never a day wasted. Happy to have contributed to my local museums efforts to fully catalogue its collections. #hymenoptera #symphyta #sawflys #entomology

Here we go! Attempting to rear my first Tipulid larvae, with these three larvae collected from a wood chip pile. Apparently it's a matter of keeping the substrate damp and waiting. Fingers crossed! #diptera #entomology #rearing

Thanks to the always excellent Pemberly books, I'm very happy to have added a couple of excellent books to the ID shelf! The Flies of Britain is bloody brilliant! #wasps #hymenoptera #coleoptera #diptera

It's the opposite of reclivous apparently..... p.34 of @gavinbroad.bsky.social's RES Ichneumonidae Key

Hurray! There's a diagram establishing the chaetotaxy in your key. BUT for some reason instead of using words, there's only arbitrary, very similar abbreviations, that you don't use in the key itself ARGGGGGHH. There is a very special spot in taxonomic hell for such people #taxonomy #taxonomyfails

Yup, it's without an anal cell. Need to go annotate the AIDGAP key now before I forget about these guys again...

Apologies the specimen is a little mullered and the anal lobe is stubbornly folded over on both sides, I don't think it's a closed cell, and I've taken and failed to rear Aproceros larvae from the site, I think I'll have to try and snip off the hindwing and attempt to spread it to be sure

Forgive me for bothering you Sawfly Bluesky, which is @naturespotter.bsky.social as far as I know, but have I gone terribly wrong, with only three antennal segments I don't think I can go that wrong...., or is this Aprosthema sp. ? #sawflys #hymenoptera

They can be very tricksy the smaller mycena, I've certainly had specimens that seem a dead certainty macroscopically, only for microscopy to show them to be something else entirely.

Likely, but microscopy would be required to confirm, even the 'Macroscopic' key resorts to microscopic charters for this lot.

So I have the worry sensation that this might be a Braconid of the Rogadinae, I think maybe in the genus Aleiodes @gavinbroad.bsky.social @jasboparai.bsky.social?

I fear for all of us there comes a time, when in the dead of night unable to find the damned precise part, we must accept our lives have reached a point when we must label our nuts. #raaco

It’s here! Starfinder 2E in the wild! Cannot wait to play this… #RPG #Starfinder

Due to some technical issues, the plug broke, this is a bit delayed, but our first Light Trap at Portsmouth Natural History Musuem is away! #Entomology #Lepidoptera #Moths