Today I went spider hunting with my mate @stevephotos.bsky.social (who took the photo) in some local grassland and we counted 19 wasp spiders! Has anyone else found this many in the same grassy area before please?
Check out the "teeth" lining the prosoma on this male erigone spider. The spider is only about 2mm long, just a little guy with big palps!
Bringing good news to your feed 👍 Across South and West Wales we are working hard to protect, restore and safeguard nature. These are our happy headlines from the past few weeks ⬇️
Mama pseudoscorpion & her cute baby high in the mountains of Montana. Mama is half the size of a grain of rice. These harmless micro arachnids have no stinger, but can deliver venom to prey via their pincers. Also, they can walk backward. Also, you probably have them in your house. #BugSky 🐙🌿
Don't worry, they're just eating booklice (another common name for pseudoscorpions is book scorpions) or carpet beetle larvae or flies or clothes moth caterpillars. So they're helping you out. Here's another mama carrying her eggs.
Great to finally see Cheiracanthium pennyi (Endangered & Nationally Rare). Known site, but always useful to confirm continued site presence. One of the spider road-trip highlights @britishspiders.bsky.social
This beautiful cocoon is built by “Fairy lamp spider” Agroeca brunnea. She weaves an inverted wine glass shaped egg sac from silk and covers in mud to disguise. Inside are two chambers, one for her eggs and the other a nursery. Amazing
Anyphaena numida one of the not so common buzzing spiders. It's juv. but feeling confident! I first recorded (2) in Aug 2022 Penarth, think the first Welsh record. This one yesterday was from a few miles away in Cogan and only the 2nd time I have seen it. @britishspiders.bsky.social @cofnod.org.uk
Garden wildlife. I saw this Pseudeuophrys lanigera on the garage door last Sunday - not a spider I expect to see outside as it's much more usual for me to find them in the house. It was still on the house though! @britishspiders.bsky.social #londonwildlife
Garden wildlife. 1/5. I did a check of the Segestria florentinas around the house last night (all relatively close, either on the house or the adjacent fence), and managed to find 17 - my highest count here so far. These are 1-4. #londonwildlife @britishspiders.bsky.social
Very, very few ground dwelling spiders out on the West Penwith cliffs at the moment. Everything is rather dry and crispy! This was one of three(!) adult money spiders - Micrargus laudatus. It's something I see relatively frequently in pioneer or very short maritime heath @britishspiders.bsky.social
5-spot Ladybird, Araneus angulatus, Attulus inexpectus and Badumna longiqua. Just a few photogenic highlights from a week-long spider recording road trip. @arachnoteg.bsky.social @bugsnstuffcom.bsky.social @wwbic1.bsky.social @sewbrec.org.uk @britishspiders.bsky.social @vc40ladybirds.bsky.social
1/2Helpis occidentalis egg sacks. Spent a few interesting hours with R.Gallon Saturday.
A very pale but very gorgeous female Dicranopalpus Harvestman sat on the side of a tree at the Cotswold Sculpture park Gloucestershire. Just to the right of it was this very simple sculpture of an owl having a tussle with an earth worm. #Harvestmen
We had an hour of beautiful, very welcome rain on Thursday night. The next morning I found this beautiful Noble False Widow spider (Steatoda nobilis) sheltering under a plant tray when I emptied water onto the garden. @britishspiders.bsky.social #Spiders
Yesterdays 43 mile cycle ride with @jeremybartlett.bsky.social took in 5 churches. Churchyards are all parched/barren, virtually lifeless even where areas left uncut. No pseuds outside in the heat but inside a couple treasure awaited - Cheiridium museorum aka Book Scorpion, alive and well.
The grass/stone bank line produced lots of spider igloos under the stones near areas with ant activity Zodarion fuscum. Most igloos had egg sacks, some were being used by imm. salticus. Recorded here previously, the third different location I have come across it locally. @britishspiders.bsky.social
A very quick visit to Porthkerry with plenty of Argiope bruennichi Wasp spiders. Would like to find a male at some point.
This was more complicated than even I thought when I set out to make the video, but I'm glad I did! It was a lot of fun, and the reality of this is really cool. youtu.be/djfoUWZbLn8?...
How Spiders REALLY Eat their Prey (and it isn't by just sucking blood)
YouTube video by Travis McEnery
youtu.be
This small patch of stones on top of a rock at Kynance Cove never misses- that's seven, yes SEVEN(!), female Porrhoclubiona genevensis with eggs inside their little sacs under one stone. I have no idea why they bundle together like this, but it's not an unusual occurrence @britishspiders.bsky.social
I was considering getting the shears on our wild patch. Not any more! A nursery web spider guarding its amazing creation. @britishspiders.bsky.social @yorkswildlife.bsky.social
Any guesses how THIS is going to figure into the video I'm working on? Practical demonstrations require weird things sometimes.
Quite amazing camouflage - Philodromus margaritatus in mid Cornwall. They have a habit of wrapping their legs around twigs/branches like this and pressing their body flat. Beating the lichen covered lateral branches trees, partially Larch seems a good way to find it here @britishspiders.bsky.social
Literally the first thing I looked at when I arrived at Silverlake was this male Lesser Emperor. One photo and it was gone, it showed well in flight subsequently though. Couple of Wasp Spiders, one with Grasshopper prey and the always exciting Green-flowered Helleborines on the way home!
Greeted on the garden path by an old friend and one of my favourite arachnids. Particularly keen to pose for pictures too which they don't normally. Scytodes thoracica-the 'Spitting Spider'
It’s getting hard to ignore the (honestly appalling) number of comments implying that this finding should be another reason to not-so-subtly suggest that spiders deserve to be terminated in any number of grisly ways. (1/6)
Guardian Australia@australia.theguardian.com · 4w agoThis huge hairy-legged Australian arachnid may be the fastest spider on the planet
One of the highlights of a trip to the Purbeck heaths, Dorset yesterday - the stunning pink Heather Crab Spider Thomisus onustus.
Then join us on Sat 8 Aug (10am–4pm) for a day of FREE wildlife activities! 🦎 Guided walks 🦋 Moth reveal 🔍 Nature treasure hunts 🪵 Willow weaving, bug hunting & crafts 🌿 Wildlife stalls ☕ Free refreshments 📍 Gaer Hill Fort, Newport (via Wells Close, NP20 3LJ) 🧵⬇️
