I was recently in my local wood photographing white letter hairstreaks when I saw this thing fly past - it was so big that my immediate impression was that it was two dragonflies 'in cop'. It dropped on to the grass near my feet just long enough to grab this shot before it flew off. I've had it identified as a giant ichneumon wasp - rhyssa peruasoria.
The following day, I was photographing skippers when I took shots of a strange creature which turned out to be another parasitic wasp - gasteruption jaculator.
...and finally - a picture that makes me smile. 2 green shieldbugs enjoying themselves on a nettle leaf
Some years ago I witnessed a grotesque encounter between an ichneumon fly and a large, hairy, 'woolly bear' type caterpillar. They were entangled in long grass and the caterpillar seemed frantic in its efforts to escape, but was not making much progress. I returned the same way some hours later (I'd been fishing) and strangely, they were still there.
As a believer in letting nature take its course, I took no action, though I was strongly tempted to plant a boot on the ichneumon. Did I do right? It would be interesting to hear what others would have done if confronted with the same situation.
It's a dilemma, David, but I would always be tempted to let nature take its course. Last year we watched this meadow brown fly into a wasp spider's nest - should we have tried to rescue it (although I suspect that the second that the spider struck would probably have been too late anyway)
