The plan to leave long grass around the new orchards is paying off for insects. Every time I weed in one of the orchards I discover lots of great creepy crawlies. Identifying them all is quite challenging but fortunately most are fairly common species and I'm even beginning to get my eye in a bit. Here's a selection from the recent orchard care day on South Millfields last weekend (16 Jan).

Hibernating caterpillar - id anyone?

Hibernating ichneumon fly (Ichneumon stramentarius) – lovely colourful insect and thankfully not too hard to id (it's in Michael Chinery's photo guide to British Insects). A parasite of caterpillars.

Hibernating bumble bee (id Tim??) - also see underside photo.

Over wintering female plant bug (Notostira elongata) – very common.

Fairly common carnivorous ground beetle [around 15mm] (Pterostichus madidus) – I've often found this when weeding orchard trees

Carabidae beetle larva (quite probably also Pterostichus madidus).

Smaller ground beetle [about 10mm] (possibly Harpalus sp.).

There were several spiders but I'm not getting involved with them just yet.