188/366 Arachnophilia

06 Monday Jul 2020

Tags

British spiders, Misumena vatia, Nursery web spider, Paidiscura pallens, Pisaura mirabilis, sputnik-shaped egg sac, White crab spider

I’m not a huge spider fan but, as I’ve been spying a few during recent meanders, I thought I should show them a little love, so …

200706 1 crab spider

White crab spiders (Misumena vatia) like this one are usually very good at camouflaging themselves, lurking on white or pale-coloured flowers, but this little one was being bold, and so made for a good subject for a photo.

200706 2 spider and eggs

A spot of leaf-turning revealed several Paidiscura pallens spiders and their weirdly shaped egg sacs. You can read more about these tiny creatures in my previous blog The sputnik spider, July 2017.

200706 3 spider and eggs

One of the meadows where I walk has a lot of long grass, some of which is now woven together by the silken threads of Nursery web spiders (Pisaura mirabilis). These spiders don’t spin webs to catch food; instead, their webs are constructed to keep their spiderlings safe while they grow in to adults.

The adult spiders are a pale brown in colour, with a pattern of darker brown and black stripes running vertically along their bodies.

200706 6 spider and eggs

The Wildlife Trust website has this fascinating information about Nursery web spiders:
‘Mating is a dangerous game for male Nursery web spiders, so they present a gift of food to the female while laying perfectly still and pretending to be dead. When the female investigates the food, the male will suddenly jump up and mate with her.’

130/366 Spiderlings

09 Saturday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, spiders, spring

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Araneus diadematus, British spiders, Garden spider, Garden spider babies, spiderlings, spiders

At first sight, from several feet away, I thought this splodge on the side of a building was a dollop of bird poo … but then I noticed it was moving. So, of course, I immediately got out my camera and peered closer.

200509 garden spiderlings (1)

They were spider babies, hundreds of them, of the species Araneus diadematus, commonly known as Garden spiders. Both as spiderlings and as adults, these are completely harmless, though, as so often happens, several of the trashy daily newspapers have, in the past, vilified these bunches of babies with such headlines as ‘Woman’s horror as hundreds of tiny yellow spiders erupt from a nest in her back garden’ and ‘Millions of “exploding” yellow baby spiders invade Britain’.

200509 garden spiderlings (2)

When they’ve grown to adult size, these little cuties will look like those I photographed for my November 2017 blog post Wearing a diadem. You can read more about the Garden spider on the British Arachnological Society’s website.

The spider and the fly

25 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Bluebottle fly, British flies, British spiders, Calliphora sp, jumping spider, Salticus scenicus, spider and fly, spider stalking prey, Zebra spider

180325 spider and fly (3)

“Come hither, hither, pretty Fly, with the pearl and silver wing;
Your robes are green and purple — there’s a crest upon your head;
Your eyes are like the diamond bright, but mine are dull as lead!”
~ from ‘The Spider and the Fly’, a poem by Mary Howitt, 1828

I’m not sure what the fly is (probably one of the Calliphora species) but its stalker is a Zebra spider (Salticus scenicus), a very common jumping spider that can be found, as this one was at Sully last week, sneaking up on its prey on sunny rocks and walls.
And what do you think happened next?

180325 spider and fly (4)

Sneaky

03 Thursday Aug 2017

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, wildflowers

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

British spiders, Daucus carota, Enoplognatha ovata, hoverflies, Pastinaca sativa, spiders, Wild carrot, Wild parsnip

I’ve got nothing against spiders: like all creatures they need to eat, but they can be rather cunning about how they ensnare their prey.

170803 Enoplognatha ovata sensu lato (1)

These Enoplognatha ovata, which come in several colourways, were taking advantage of the umbrella-shaped flowers of Wild carrot (Daucus carota) and Wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa), lurking under the canopy created by the flower stems then darting rapidly through the gaps to grab hoverflies and other mini-beasties while they were feeding. Very sneaky!

170803 Enoplognatha ovata sensu lato (3)

170803 Enoplognatha ovata sensu lato (2)

The sputnik spider

06 Thursday Jul 2017

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

British arachnids, British spiders, egg sac, oddly-shaped egg sac, Paidiscura pallens, spider egg sac, spiders, sputnik-shaped egg sac

The weirdest thing I found when I was out square-bashing last week was this sputnik-shaped thing, stuck to the underside of an oak leaf. It was incredibly tiny, about 2mm across, and I had no idea what it might be.

170706 Paidiscura pallens egg sac (3)

Luckily, I belong to some really excellent wildlife groups on Facebook and, when I posted a photo on the Insects of Britain and Northern Europe page, I got an answer almost immediately. This is the egg sac of the spider Paidiscura pallens. At just 1.5mm, the spider is even smaller than its egg sac and, because of its tiny size, is rarely even noticed.

170706 Paidiscura pallens (1)

So, the next time I was out for a wander I decided to check the undersides of more leaves – they prefer stiff leaves, like oak, sycamore and holly – to see if I could find any others. And bingo, I quite quickly spotted three more egg sacs and their creators, sitting not far away on the leaves. So, next time you’re out for a walk, take a look under some leaves. You never know what you might find.

170706 Paidiscura pallens (2)