A striking yellow-banded ichneumon found in my conservatory in Ipswich (VC25 East Suffolk, TM166450) on 6 May 2016. There is a volume of the Royal Entomological Society Handbook that covers this wasp: RES Handbook Vol7 Part 2a ii, available as a free download here: <a href="http://www.royensoc.co.uk/.../files/Vol07_Part02a_ii.pdf" rel="nofollow">www.royensoc.co.uk/.../files/Vol07_Part02a_ii.pdf</a> I used the anatomy diagrams in Tereshkin's illustrated key at <a href="http://www.zobodat.at/pdf/LBB_0041_2_1317-1608.pdf" rel="nofollow">www.zobodat.at/pdf/LBB_0041_2_1317-1608.pdf</a> along with numerous google searches to work out where to look for several of the characteristics. As usual, I photographed what I thought were the relevant features of the insect for an expert to be able to determine its species. From the key I concluded that it is a female Ichneumon stramentarius, Gravenhorst 1820 which Perkins describes as "Not uncommon". Dr Gavin Broad, Senior Curator of Hymenoptera at the Natural History Museum agreed with the identification, but explained that the species called stramentarius by Perkins is now known as stramentor as the true stramentarius turned out to be something else!