The raspy cricket in the centre of this image was a surprising find. Not only do we see this species only rarely … but it is flightless. It must have climbed the trap mesh and ultimately fallen into the collection bottle. And it wasn’t alone! This single sample contained an adult female (centre, arrow), an adult male, and at least five nymphs (eg arrow top left).

Note too the many tiny insects, some circled in red. Probably flies and wasps … we’ll know soon enough!

Another postcard for biodiversity. By my reckoning there are six insect orders in shot here, and apart from a few beetles, no two are alike.

With a pair of small spiders for extra variety.

I didn’t arrange them this way. It’s just a random closeup of a part of the (much!) larger weekly sample.