Not Lepidoptera - Spiders

[Susie]

I think this is Misumena vatia. I have seen white ones before but this perfectly matched the marsh marigolds.

[Chris]

Wow! Great!!

[geniculata]

hi susie,

loved the yellow misumena vatia pic of yours, she's camouflaged so well, matching the marsh marigold perfectly.
here's the white form. she's been hanging out on an evergreen michelia blossom in my garden for a couple of days.

gary.

[Susie]

Fantasic shots, Gary!

Try as I might I just cannot get the detail you have managed to get in yours.

The marsh marigolds have just about finished now so it has had to move on to something else yellow to try blend into the background. The water forgetmenots are not as good a match but it does look pretty.

[geniculata]

gorgeous image you got there,

must admit i prefer my misumena's dressed as yours is in shocking canary bird yellow!
great colour contrast with the pale blue of the myosotis.
and your little lady is wonderfully plump, she's obviously well provided for in your garden,
mine on the other hand looks like a bit of a racing snake in comparison, i think she needs a good meal.

gary.

[Susie]

That is why mine are so plump! They are eating all my bees.

[geniculata]

yep,
susie as you've now doubt observed they also seem to discard the whole body and only consume the contents of the bees heads.
how wasteful in this day and age!

gary. great pics by the way.

[geniculata]

went into the wooton coppice inclosure at mid day today, found both pearl and small pearl frits again which is allways great to see but also got nearly as much enjoyment when i came across my first raft spider of the year.
they are pretty common here in the forest but they never fail to impress me with their size and structure.
as our largest spider they can take some good sized prey and ive often seen them chow down on large dragonflys.

gary.

[twitcher]

Hi all,
Great pics, would love to see a Raft spider.It was fascinating watching the male Wolf offering a food parcel to the female and hoping for the best (rather him than me!!!)never stayed to see result.
Shaun.

[Dave McCormick]

I got this last night with its parcel of a fly (Anyone know what it is?):

[Piers]

Hiya Dave,

It looks like it could be from the family Tetragnathidae, genus Tetragnatha.

But I could be very wrong...!

Felix.

[Dave McCormick]

Thanks anyway Felix, I'll look into it and see.

[Gruditch]

Their back, 21 of these monsters seen today, two with butterfly carcases in their webs .
This drizzly weather makes finding spider webs a lot easier, and beats siting indoors.

Gruditch

[Chris]

It looks like it could be from the family Tetragnathidae, genus Tetragnatha.

It definitely is, either tetragnatha elongata or tetragnatha montana. I like these spiders... they have some record for the largest mandibles/fangs relative to body size in the world from memory...

[geniculata]

found this yesterday in the forest,

its a nationally scarce jumping spider species, found mainly on southern heathlands, evarcha arcuata, a male.

gary.

[Mikhail]

Terrific shot. I love those headlamps.

Misha

[geniculata]

hi misha,

thanks mate! i found him on heather over near whitten pond.
i agree the eyes are just amazing, look like polished glass.

gary.

[Lee Hurrell]

Ah - I just found this spider thread. I saw 3 of what Denise has identified as Wasp Spiders for me (same as Gary's shot) and posted shots in the August 09 sightings thread, page 9.
Cheers
Lee

[Dave McCormick]

It definitely is, either tetragnatha elongata or tetragnatha montana. I like these spiders... they have some record for the largest mandibles/fangs relative to body size in the world from memory...

Thanks for help and thats a cool record though, they have always been one of my favourte spiders I have seen around here.

[NickB]

Shot this earlier this year; an unequal but long battle....
N