Not Lepidoptera,,,Arachnids.

[Zonda]

This was hanging around on the heath this morning, waiting for Little Miss Moffat. Any spider peeps know its name

[Chris]

Nice pic Zonda.... I'd say it was the Common Garden Spider (araneus diademetus), which is extremely variable. While on the heath, look out for the larger and distinctly more spherical close relative, araneus quadratus. There should be plenty about at this time of year.

[geniculata]

hi zonda,

ahh tis araneus diadematus, the garden spider.
thanks for your veiw on the fungi pics i posted zonda! i had it confirmed today as queletii by a good friend of mine southhamptons, phil budd who has seen it several times but not in the forest before.

find attached a couple of jumping spider pics, one from the weekend and another from the week before.

gary.

[Lee Hurrell]

Gary - they look EVIL
Nice pics though.
Best,
Lee

[Zonda]

Anything with four eyes tends to look evil (takes off specs). A GARDEN SPIDER This cannot be that boring,,,,why isnt it called something fierce? Certainly looks the part. Glad you got the bolete sussed Gary, i've never seen one of those.
A GARDEN SPIDER Great pics, by the way. Did you use Extension tubes? What did you see on your hike across the lowland heaths of Dorset? Um,,well i saw a (whisper) Garden spider.

[geniculata]

hi zonda,
na just a raynox close up lens on the front of my panasonic. it works quite well.

gary.

[Zonda]

Certainly does.

[Chris]

A GARDEN SPIDER This cannot be that boring

Ha... sorry! It does have other names... the cross spider, the papal cross spider and the diadem spider... if you say "diadem spider" fast enough, it sounds dangerous!

We're not very good at naming spiders in Britain in my opinion... one of the larger, spectacular spiders we have is called the Nursery Spider, but again that doesn't sound very threatening. In my shed, I have a population of one of the only 'venomous to man' spiders in Britain. It's name? The Rabbit Hutch Spider. Rabbit Hutches... the stuff of nightmares! Oh, and by the way, it isn't even very venomous.

The good news is that there are thousands of common spiders that haven't even been given a vernacular name... perhaps we can change that? I'd suggest The Doom Spider, The Creeping Death Spider are due for allocation.

[Zonda]

The Cross spider sounds even more dangerous. That's better. Are they really common? If they vary that much, how come the taxonomists haven't played around, and split it into 5 species?

[Chris]

Are they really common?

Mouths like dockers...

[Zonda]

LOL Well there ya go, that's wildlife

[Zonda]

Talking about 'Common names'. Recently English Nature, and the British Mycological Society published a list of new English names for all of the commoner fungi in Britain. Perhaps they will do the same for spiders in the future. Butterflies don't seem to have this problem in Britain. As regards fungi, i know them better by their Linnaean binomial, and some of the new English names sound a bit naff. It's a real tragedy that there are so few butterflies resident here, while there are so many on the continent. Is the Channel that much of a barrier? I thought that winters were far more severe on the continent. That said, i suppose our winters are wetter, and that might be a factor. Sorry, i'm rambling now.

[Piers]

Talking about 'Common names'. Recently English Nature, and the British Mycological Society published a list of new English names for all of the commoner fungi in Britain.

Well what an irritating and pointless exercise. The revamped 'Natural England' continually surprise me with this sort of tosh. I certainly hope that the people assigned to that project were payed handsomely for their work; I'd hate to think of that money being spent on, oh I don't know, conservation perhaps, or management of their reserves...!

I suppose the thinking is that the general public will not be interested in fungi unless the species are provided with English common names rather than their given Latin name. Still, as long as everything is dumbed down to the lowest denominator that's all that matters I suppose...!

My favourite is the recent renaming of the fungus 'Jew's Ear' to 'Ear Fungus' so as not to offend any bleeding-heart white liberals. The assumption must be that anyone likely to be offended will not have any grasp of Latin, as the species name remains 'auricula-judae' - Jew's Ear.

Felix.

[Hamearis]

[quote]The Doom Spider, The Creeping Death Spider are due for allocation.[/quote]
How about Vagina Creeper Spider in honor of Dave?

[Charles Nicol]

i saw this fearsome beastie in France on my hols . does anyone know what it is ?

charles

[Denise]

It's a Wasp spider (Argiope bruennichi) Charles.

Ham, you are funny,

Denise

[Charles Nicol]

thanks Denise... that actually makes a lot of sense... one of my other pics shows it noshing on a wasp !!

Charles

[Piers]

Hi Charles,

Looks like Argiope bruennichi, or the wasp spider. Mediterranean in origin now found in most counties of southern England, and recorded as far north as Lincolnshire.

[Rogerdodge]

Ah - the Wasp Spider.
Grud, Gwen and I had fun with a couple of these in two succesive years on Stockbridge Down.
Lovely beastie.

[Zonda]

Felix said

Well what an irritating and pointless exercise. The revamped 'Natural England' continually surprise me with this sort of tosh. I certainly hope that the people assigned to that project were payed handsomely for their work; I'd hate to think of that money being spent on, oh I don't know, conservation perhaps, or management of their reserves...!

I couldn't agree with you more, it is laughable.