European Garden Spider
This far south, it’s already garden spider time.
spider silk
The reserve’s fields are full of spiders’ webs.
Continue reading “spider silk”Tetragnatha extensa
Another trawl through the depths of our species lists has snagged a long jawed spider, Tetragnatha extensa.
Continue reading “Tetragnatha extensa“Wasp Spiders
By Simon Knight
After the water voles, my second favourite residents of the reserve are the wasp spiders. When July rolls around, I make it my mission to find my first wasp spider and this happened on 3rd July. She was in Village Green and very small, the youngest I had ever seen. I used what3words to record the location as my plan was to come back over the coming days to see how she progressed. I was hoping the long grass in Village Green would remain as the rest of the reserve had already been cut, but sadly the next day Village Green was also cut. No more wasp spider.
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Hallowe’en Greetings to all our arachnophobes from park resident, Agelena labyrinthica.
Header picture: Labyrinth spider by Gail Hampshire (CC BY 2.0)
Video from: Animalia Kingdom – Łukasz Karnatowski
Wasp Spider
An email and attachments from Clive Knight:
“Too late for yesterday’s yellow and black article, I know, but here are a few pics of the wasp spiders I have seen on the reserve this year.”
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Nursery web spider
The breeding season of the reserve’s nursery web spiders (Pisaura mirabilis) can extend well into September.
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Highs and Lows
The past couple of weeks in the park have brought me some wonderful highs and unfortunately, some truly depressing lows. I will get the lows out of the way first, as I want to end on a positive note.
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A flower crab spider, Misumena vatia.
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Research has concluded that 42% of people are scared of spiders.
Read on for a little reassurance
Pictures taken in the park by Simon Knight.
spider silk
The fields are full of spiders’ webs.
Continue reading “spider silk”and there’s more….
Another wasp spider!
Jason Pickard photographed this specimen on Wednesday in The Race, in the south facing hedge among the tall grass there. Perhaps we have the makings of a colony.
Continue reading “and there’s more….”
Wasp spider
A large colourful female wasp spider found yesterday by Ian Bushell in the set-aside at the top of Kestrel Field.
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Nursery web spider
A nursery web spider (Pisaura mirabilis) photographed in the park by DKG on a dewy morning.
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Nursery web spider
A nursery web spider (Pisaura mirabilis) photographed in the park by DKG on a dewy Sunday morning.
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We apologise for wrongly identifying this little bird. We thought it was a blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) but our expert has identified it as a marsh tit (Poecile palustris). This is the first sighting of a marsh tit in the park: a new name for our species lists.
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 