Photographs of a large number of species across many taxonomic groups, presented both alphabetically and ecologically.

Although OK in most areas, the critical groups can be unreliable to the point of fantasy (Ichneumonidae being a case in point. Where these names came from is anybody’s guess!).

The author has done an immense amount of work on this site and it’s such a shame that it’s let down in this way. Whenever somebody offers you a name for something, remember that they may know less than you do and expertise is inversely proportional to confidence!

The identification of Ichneumonidae, except perhaps the large obvious ones, is totally unreliable, with more wrong than right and many not even in the right subfamily. These insects are often difficult for the specialist to identify with a specimen under the microscope and a reliably-named museum collection to compare it with. It’s pure fantasy to think you can get reliable names from photographs of living insects.

It’s such a shame because the webmaster has obviously put a huge amount of work into the website.