Though the distribution of this spider is quite patchy in south Wales, I’ve seen the extensive sheet-like webs they construct in and over and around vegetation in wild meadows, grasslands and on rough ground several times before, but the webs’ creators, the Labyrinth spiders (Agelena labyrinthica), are usually tucked away in their tunnel-like sanctuary at the back of the web structure. So, I was very pleased to see not one, but three of these handsome beasties on the first day of my little trip to Gloucestershire.

I’m sure the reason I saw all of them is because they were so preoccupied with other activities that they either didn’t even notice me or considered me a presence that could be ignored. The first two I spotted, shown above and below, were locked together, and I wasn’t sure if this was a fight in progress or something else. Turns out these were male and female Labyrinth spiders in the act of mating. I’m advised by those much more expert than me that the male is at the back in the first photo and on top in the second.

And the third handsome Agelena labyrinthica specimen I found had just that moment rushed out of its tunnel to secure a sawfly, one of the vivid green Rhogogaster species, that had inadvertently strayed on to the spider’s web and was about to be dragged back to the lair for consumption. A sad end for the sawfly but a happy co-incidence for me and the hungry spider.