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Simply Spiders

There's a Moth thread and one for Insects, so I thought maybe one for our Arachnid friends. If there's already a live thread out there, my apologies...

I have plenty of these spiders in the garden, mainly in the hedges. Cross Spider I believe. It wasn't too happy with the camera!

  • Knew there was a good reason I didn't open this post late last night Nige!

    Unknown said:
    if I was scared of spiders I'd be sleeping downstairs on the sofa!

    Something like that at mine & I would have spent the night in a hotel! Lol

  • Good job your place isn't like mine then. Earlier in the month, I threw out four of these in five days! Every morning there was another in the kitchen sink (never the bath). I don't know where they all come from! I let this one stay, although I'll probably find it trapped in the sink in a few days and then I'll evict it.

  • Unknown said:

    This is currently guarding the bottom of the stairs …

    You may not be able to tell from the photo but it's a whopper, as big as house spiders get … if I was scared of spiders I'd be sleeping downstairs on the sofa!

    I have half a six inch ruler in my camera bag, that I should use to give relative guidance to size.

    But, I never seem to get round to using it!  :/

  • I was going to say the spider looked good on full screen Nigel but for some reason I failed to get that far!!!!!

  • If you look at it full screen you can probably tell I haven't vacuumed the stairs. Mind you, you don't need full screen for that!

    Mike: if I want scale I tend to use a coin as I tend to have one handy and the size is well known, but I don't like doing it unless I must because it generally ruins the photo.

  • For some reason this Spider thread has beenabandoned, with Spiders being posted on the Insect thread! Quelle horreur! Where has your discipline gone forumites!

    Here's one you don't get in the UK, sits on flowers waiting for it's victims, & there was a field full the other day. It's called "Synema globosum" or Napoleon Spider

  • Nice spot and even with prey. Not typically a UK resident I think, although while looking them up, I did see a report of one found in Scotland a few years ago.

    As for your quote "For some reason this Spider thread has been abandoned, with Spiders being posted on the Insect thread! Quelle horreur! Where has your discipline gone forumites!"

    Without actually checking I thought I was one of the few who used it last year (along with you), so this year, when you started the insect thread saying welcome to include spiders there, I did decide to abandon this one as I assumed you would too. I don't actually see too many different species but as long as we put them somewhere  :)

    One the regulars I see is the Long-jawed Orb-weaver (Tetragnatha sp) like this recent example (underside as it hangs from a horizontal web)

    and from the side

  • Nigel said " when you started the insect thread saying welcome to include spiders there, I did decide to abandon this one as I assumed you would too".
    Oh dear, I forgot I said that, must be my age! The main thing is to put them somewhere like you said, (probably out the door if they are big & hairy).

    P.S. Also forgot to say that your photos are great as usual!

  • Certainly looks like it D ... I get the plainer ones in my garden every year, always make me jump, they're very defensive!!

  • Nursery Web Spiders are quite variable, so I agree that they are all the same. The second one is quite a nice variation.

    I actually got one a few days ago as well but have only just worked the photos up. Looks very similar to your third one.