Ramco Primary School 2 - Dr Erinn Fagan-Jeffries

Trap 2!

Hi Ramco! I just finished your second trap, and there’s a few exciting things!

Here’s the second trap – can you see some different things to the last one?

There were a few new Orders of insect in this second trap!

Collembola: Springtrails
Neuroptera: Lacewings
Dermaptera: Earwings

A collembolan, image from iNaturalist user vuk used under a Creative Commons CCBYNC

A lacewing, image by iNaturalist user ozlady, used under a Creative Commons CCBYNC license

Earwig – image by iNaturalist user ellurasanctuary, used under Creative Commons license CCBYNC

BUT, most exciting – a microgastrine wasp! These are the ones that I am studying – thanks so much for catching one in the trap! This is a male, which makes it tricky to identify as to help identify them we often use what the ovipositor (the egg-laying tube, which is where the stinger is on some other wasps) looks like, but we’ll be sequencing the DNA of the specimens to work out what it is – maybe it will even be a new species!

Thanks again for being part of this project – I’ll leave you with a photo of my ‘working from home’ set up, and my dog Lunar helping to sort your Malaise trap sample.