Tegwyn

Due to various circumstances I have not had any trips out looking for spiders so far this year! Fortunately I have been looking after some spiders that have kept my interest. Not had anything to personally post so decided to share some pictures of local spiders from previous years.

Harpactea in the hood. #Spiders #BathroomSpiders

Nemastomella bacilliferum (Hedgehog Harvestman)

One of the Nemastomella bacilliferum (Hedgehog Harvestman) from the day trip to Plymouth y'day to meet up with @johnwalterswildife.bsky.social
Thanks again John!
@britishspiders.bsky.social

Steatoda grossa female

As County Recorder, one of my responsibilities is relocating the spiders my wife doesn't like from the house.

Steatoda grossa

#Arachnids #Spiders #VC55

(I occasionally cheat and relocate them to a quiet spot elsewhere)

Spider people! Anyone out there doing any work on Microhexura montivaga? Or does anyone know if any surveys are happening this year? Got a friend looking into them.

#Arachnids #Spiders

They are also handy. Can be tricky if dealing with fast spiders though. Need to close the frame quickly or the spider is gone! Also the same problem when you open it. Not used the card sleeves but imagine they will easily capture the spider without worrying about it making a quick exit.

A little strip of Beech woodland beside a green field with thick woodland in the background. The trees are bare branched with smooth grey-green trunks and there is a deep carpet of red-brown dead leaves beneath them.

The underside of a dark grey log with holes in it and a greyish-brown harvestman with spiny legs sprawled out on it.

Close-up of the harvestmen showing a dark and light chequerboard pattern on its back with two rows of blunt spines running down it. The eyes are dark and quite small. The body is rather flattened and the legs are very spiny.

An unprepossessing little strip of Beech woodland in Norfolk that I visited yesterday. Turned over a log and low and behold, there was only my second ever Norfolk Homalenotus quadridentatus! #arachnids #opiliones #harvestman

A spider that I rarely find, probably once every two years - Hilaira excisa. This was in the company of the very similar looking Drepanotylus uncatus in the mires of Bodmin Moor. Forgot to take a habitat picture so the high moor in the pouring rain will have to suffice! @britishspiders.bsky.social

Transparent card protector sleeves

Episinus angulatus male

I bought some of the transparent card protector sleeves @tylanberry.bsky.social suggested for harmlessly restraining insects for photography.
They work!

#Arachnids #Spiders #entomology #Insects #macrophotography #macro

Unravelling the secrets of spider limb regeneration to inspire new Spider webs are engineering marvels constructed by 8 legged experts with 400 million years of accumulated know-how.  Much can be learned from the building of the spider’s gossamer net and the

Reading how spiders can regenerate legs when they’re growing and shed exoskeleton - and how even when new and small they can use the new limb as normal www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-11....

Lepthyphantes minutus female

Lepthyphantes minutus

#Arachnids #Spiders #VC55

Just looked. 100 for £2-50 on eBay

Will check them out

How to make a perfect 360° ant snare whilst ensuring your dangerous prey can't get anywhere near you as you rest. Handily in a sheltered nook too, away from the last 45+ days of Cornish rain! Cryptachaea blattea are amazing - the ingenuity of Theridiids knows no bounds! @britishspiders.bsky.social

The frames are very useful

A small spider sitting hunched up on a piece of grey-brown wood, facing left. The spider has an orange cephalothorax and legs while the roundish abdomen is greyish-brown.

A small spider facing right. The spider has an orange cephalothorax with slightly paler legs while the roundish abdomen is brown. The head area is slightly raised. It has been photographed down a microscope with a bright light that intensifies the colour.

Close up of the spiders epigyne, taken down a microscope. The epigyne is the females reproductive area. There is a central whitish vertical oblong bordered either side by two dark circular areas. Above the epigyne is the base of the cephalothorax where the legs attach.

Took a spider from the cemetery home to ID. Turned out to be a Liny which I don't normally look at (too small). Surprised that it was straightforward to key out: female Gonatium rubellum. I put the live spider in a 'floating frame' to keep it still under the microscope and released her afterwards.

Mucking about in the garden with a new (for me) camera, found this Anyphaena species on the shed. First time I've seen that in the garden. Old camera succumbed to not holding the lens on - wobbly - so confined to the compound microscope now. New one needs some learning.

A mostly dry day - it's a miracle!
A pair of Collared doves made obliging subjects for my camera, &, on the fence panels around a building site, I found what I think is a Larinioides cornutus spider & my first moth of the year, an Early moth (Theria primaria), I think.

Excellent video. Thoroughly enjoyed it, a lot of interesting info to think about.

YouTube video by Travis McEnery How Spiders Survive Winter is Cooler Than You Think

Ever wonder what happens to spiders in winter? Here ypu go!

youtu.be/mzzfJLQGV8A

Hawaiian caterpillar patrols spiderwebs camouflaged in insect prey’s body parts Lepidoptera is the most herbivorous of all the insect orders, with predatory caterpillars globally comprising less than 0.13% of the nearly 200,000 moth and butterfly species. Here, we report a specie...

The bone collector caterpillar is a carnivorous caterpillar that lives in spider webs.
It disguises itself with the corpses of the spider's prey, while stealing food from their eight-legged host's web
🧪
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Unknown spider Topsham, Devon, 9/2/2026.

Unknown spider Topsham, Devon, 9/2/2026.

Unknown spider Topsham, Devon, 9/2/2026.

Unknown spider Topsham, Devon, 9/2/2026.

Anyone recognise this spider please? Checked my books and can't get anywhere. On a grave stone, Topsham, Devon, 9/2/2026.
@britishspiders.bsky.social

Thanks for that. I am not far from there so will keep an eye out.

Another unexpected find on today's walk near Blackmill, Bridgend, was this Ghost Slug (Selenochlamys ysbryda).

It's been raining here for weeks, and it's generally after a period of very wet weather that I find these most often.

Amazing how white they look

The ant hunting Five-spotted Ground Spider Callilepis nocturna is confined to just three sites and is considered Vulnerable to extinction in Britain. Image copyright: Richard Gallon.

The magnificent Western Ground Spider Gnaphosa occidentalis is restricted to a handful of coastal cliffs in Cornwall and considered Vulnerable to extinction in Britain. Image copyright: Tylan Berry

The Jumping spider Euophrys herbigrada is restricted to short coastal and cliff top grassland on the south coast and is Vulnerable to extinction. Image copyright: Tylan Berry

The Sac spider Porrhoclubiona genevensis is confined to maritime grassland and cliffs at the very western extremities of England and Wales. It's considered Near Threatened on the British Red List. Image copyright: Richard Gallon

As a final example a rare habitat with a unique set of spiders, many of them threatened, coast cliff top grasslands are being lost to encroaching scrub, invasive non-native plants and tourism pressures. #RedList assessments for species like these are essential first steps in their conservation.

The Sand Running Crab Spider Rhysodromus fallax must be one of the best camouflaged species in Britain. Confined to the seaward edges of sand dune it's considered Vulnerable to extinction. Image copyright: Richard Gallon

The Money spider Baryphyma martimum is restricted to the sand coasts of East Anglia, with just one record on the west coast. Although not in one of the 'threatened' categories on the British Red List, it's considered 'Near Threatened'. Image copyright: Richard Gallon.

Coastal and inland sand dunes (for example in the Brecks of East Anglia) have long been under pressure from tourism, development and aggregate extraction. On the coast, the increasing pace of sea level rise, coastal erosion and realignment projects add to these threats.

The Money spider Eriogone welchi occurs at altitude in very wet Sphagnum moss lawns: it is Red Listed as Endangered. Image copyright: Richard Gallon.

Another Money Spider, Maro lepidus, is also restricted to extremely wet, Sphagnum filled pools and is lost if the peat dries. It's Red Listed as Endangered. Image copyright: Richard Gallon

Minicia marginella, another tiny Money Spider, was classified as 'data deficient' because so little was known about it when the last GB Red List was complied. Now, we know that it's another characteristic species of upland mires with an extremely restricted distribution. Image copyright: Richard Gallon

Few upland peat mires remain undamaged by human activity, including afforestation and burning. The, often very small, areas that remain intact are home to some highly specialist spider species

The Marsh Wolf Spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata, restricted to a handful of fens in East Anglia and southern England, is currently Endangered but loss from known sites puts it as risk of becoming Critically Endangered. Image copyright: Richard Gallon

The tiny Jumping spider Neon valentulus is restricted to a few East Anglian fens where it particularly susceptible to climate change induced summer droughts. It's already Critically Endangered. Image copyright: Richard Gallon

The Money spider Baryphyma gowerense occurs in fens and occasionally salt-marshes in a very small number of sites in Norfolk and Wales. It is Vulnerable to extinction. Image copyright: Richard Gallon

In Britain, Rosser's Sac Spider Clubiona rosserae is known from only one East Anglian fen. It's currently considered Vulnerable to extinction. Image copyright: Richard Gallon

Britain's remaining alkaline fens are small, isolated fragments that are vulnerable to desiccation from drainage of surrounding agricultural land and climate change. Together with Globally Red Listed Fen Raft Spider, many of their specialist spider species are threatened: