Insects and Spiders

Cinnabar moth on a walk yesterday

Wait a minute, that's not an insect? 🤔🕵️‍♂️

Any ideas what this cool cat is?

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Yellow-tail moth maybe?

White Satin Moth caterpillar maybe?

I think you are right, I think the red and white are the wrong way around for the yellow-tail but I can find images showing it both ways which is confusing

Correct, move it to the reptilian thread

Any ideas what this is loads of them where I work sticking to doors they then roll up.

Possibly a Harlequin ladybird larvae?

Yeah, I struggled a bit - lots of moth caterpillars with red/white bodies - and my ID book has some pretty curious renderings

Yeah that's it quite cool looking things little battle bugs. dont know why image isn't showing

Ladybird larvae i think

Caterpillars eating my willow. Any ideas what species of butterfly / moth?
They look very distinctive

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Maybe willow redgall saw fly

I'm actually a bit surprised that doesn't exist. Snakes, but not Reptilian thread.

Yeah had a Google and that's exactly what they are there are loads of them and they are properly stuck to the door.

Def a sawfly, think Nematus pavidus - lesser willow sawfly?

Yeah that looks correct, many thanks.

I spent 15 minutes a couple of days ago cutting off the branches which had these on and putting them in my brown garden recycling bin. They can munch away to their hearts content in there.
They don't seem to have reappeared on the willow so all good so far

Stopped while out riding at the weekend and leant my bike against a log pile. The biggest hornet I have ever seen buzzed out and landed on my tire. I couldn't get a pic quick enough before it buzzed back into the pile. There was also this one that was frantically rubbing its abdomen against a log for some reason.

Very wary of being that close to a potential hornet nest so made a quick exit.

Here's another thread about reptiles:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/179278/

Going by the Asian hornet app, that looks like a female giant woodwasp/greater horntail - absolute units for the UK (up to 45mm apparently)

They can really go to work, reminded me of this pic I took of my silver birch getting stripped a couple of summers back.

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That looks like a solitary wasp, and an ichneumonid, but I can't work out which one. None of these quite seem to fit, perhaps the closest is amblyteles armatorius (but as the guide isn't complete, it may not be in there):

https://www.naturespot.org.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/british-ichneumonid-wasps-id-guide.pdf

Shame you didn't get a picture of the hornet. Hornets and wasps are much less aggressive close to their nests than honeybees, by the way.

Ah yes, you've got it. It looked much thinner to me from the picture, but it's clearly misleading.

Maybe a giant wood wasp? Would make sense of the abdomen rubbing against the bark:

The giant horntail is a massive sawfly that is also known as the 'giant woodwasp' or 'greater horntail wasp'. A relative of the wasps, the female is black and yellow and has a long, stinger-like tail that is actually her ovipositor, which she uses to lay her eggs into wood, particularly pine. The larvae live in the wood of pine trees, where they spend up to five years developing. Found near pine woods, or places where pine timbers are used.
How to identify
The giant horntail is a black-and-yellow-banded insect that looks like a large wasp, so may be confused with the hornet or hornet robberfly. The female has a long ovipositor at the end of her body, which looks like a stinger.

Taken from: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/bees-and-wasps/giant-horntail