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I think you can easily see how this little arachnid got its common name of Cricket bat spider – the black shape on its abdomen does look very similar to a cricket bat and, to my eye, the three lines on the base of its abdomen also resemble the stumps, though that may just be my fanciful imagination.

240618 Cricket Bat spider

This is Mangora acalypha, which the Spider and Harvestman Recording Scheme website reports is mostly found in southern Wales and England, mostly on gorse bushes but also on other shrubs. These were the first two I’d ever seen and were on Creeping thistle and Common fleabane, in a field that once was farmed but is now re-wilding (though, sadly, the Welsh government has plans to build 500 houses in this location). You can read more details about this species and see a map of its distribution on the SHRS website.