I was walking to the supermarket for a food shop, passing an old, stone, house boundary wall, when my eye caught movement low down so, of course, I stopped to look, and, upon noticing the movement was a spider, pulled out my camera (never leave home without one!) to take some photos. Being in the middle of town, I got some funny looks from passers-by, I can tell you, and I heard a young child ask its accompanying adult, ‘What’s that lady doing?’, but I’m used to that these days.

And I got my photos of a new-to-me spider species. Even better, the photos were good enough to distinguish which of the two Dysdera species this was. So, let me present Dysdera crocata, the Woodlouse spider, whose favourite prey is, unsurprisingly, Woodlice, and who can usually be found under stones or logs, or living in cracks in brick or stone walls.

When I checked my guide book and initially read about the two species being difficult to tell apart, my heart sank. But then I saw that D. crocata has 1 to 3 dorsal spines and 1 ventral spine on the upper part of its back legs, which I thought I could see in my enlarged image. And this was later confirmed by an expert on social media. So, it was worth the odd looks and muttered comments!