Patience Is A Virtue: Large Brown

Bigger, better detail.

Firstly HELP! PLEASE look at this shot I took this afternoon of an Ichneumon: It's the first one I've seen, but I can't ID it. The only British one I can find with such a long ovipositor is Rhyssa persuasoria - and all pics I've seen of that one have orange or yellow legs and white or yellow markings on the body - this one has black legs and red banding, and a white tip to the ovipositor. I'd love to know what it is - if anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Edit: This mystery Ichneumon has been identified as a Carrot Wasp (Gasteruption jaculator). Many thanks to Monkey for this.

Patience is something I've never really had in great measure where many things are concerned. Apart from my long marriage and my lifelong passions for music and horses (and Egyptology since I was about 16 years old) I've often tended not to stick at things - if I can't do it well quickly or have it fairly quickly I get bored waiting and turn to something else - and then usually even if I do manage to do it/have it, I get bored with it and move on anyway. I guess I'm a typical Sagittarian, we're renowned for being fickle and flighty - there's always something better/more interesting on the horizon!
But today it occured to me that over the last few years I've surprised myself. Somehow I managed to apply myself to 5 years hard slog in my own time to get a degree - though I have to confess when I started I did wonder if I'd ever manage to stick it out! lol
Then there's photography - which has also become a passion due to blipping over the last 14 months. I've really applied myself to getting the best from my fairly limited compact camera. I now usually go nowhere without it, pull over sometimes when driving if I see a potentially good blip, take diversions from my route to get one, get nettle stings and aches and pains sometimes from getting into odd positions to get a good angle on something etc. Last night on my drive to my evening out I stopped to photograph the sunset. On walking up to a post and rail fence to lean on, I ended up stepping into a ditch about 2 feet deep which was disguised by the overgrowth around it! Luckily I was wearing jeans and boots, and the ditch was bone dry - though I did manage to drop my glasses in the process and had to hunt around in the growth in the ditch to find them before I could get out. My language was not repeatable! lol

This morning I went on another Scorpion fly hunt on the thistle patch in the corner of the paddock, where I've see the male 3 times and the female once in 5 days. That's when it struck me - it's the third time since I first spotted the male that I've gone there specifically to look for one particular insect! If that's not patience I don't know what is ...

Today's been hot, humid, mostly overcast and VERY windy, but fortunately the thistle patch is fairly sheltered. Sadly however there was no sign of of the Scorpion flies despite a long and detailed hunt. Before heading back to to cottage I walked over to the bramble bush where I've found so many good things to blip - but that area's quite exposed and the bush was billowing like a galleon's sails - no blips there then ... nor at the thistle patch at the top end by the horses shelter. A repeat visit this afternoon was also fruitless so far as the Scorpion fly was concerned. But it provided me with my blip. It also provided me with my second shot of a White, a butterfly I really hope to blip at some point - this time a Small White. But today the shot of the Large Brown (which I've also not blipped before) was the better shot in my opinion.

At one point I spotted a Damselfly frantically straining to free itself from the small web of a tiny spider. The spider I guess would have managed to despatch the Damselfly with its venom, despite the big difference in size, but I felt so sorry for the Damselfly that I stepped in and freed it, placing it on the grass. It struggled for a minute or so to despatch the remaining traces of web on its wings, then laid on the grass recouperating for a short while. As it did so I grabbed the opportunity for a couple of shots of it - can you blame me? lol. I really liked this one. Hopefully the spider managed to trap another meal ....

I'd really hoped to get to Howe Hill, near Ludham, today to look for the Swallowtails for which it's known - but this weather would have made it a waste of time. Hopefully tomorrow ....