| Review (by Malcolm Storey) | A nicely-produced introduction to identifying British ichneumonidae. The ichneumonidae are notorious for having a few body patterns which are repeated across a large number of very similar species, often not even closely related. These include | completely pale brownish orange (mostly nocturnal) | | black body with red legs. | | black with 2 yellow basal tergites, yellow scutellum and yellow bands on legs. | | black with 2 or 3 red basal tergites, often with a white antennal band, white scutellum and/or a white blaze on the last few tergites towards the abdomen tip. |
Of necessity the guide only covers a few species of this enormous family so beware of shoe-horning your finds into the species illustrated. Expect less than 10% of your finds to match. |
