With Ian away on his jollies it has fallen to me to choose the first species of the week for August, and I’ve gone for this fantastic creature:
Wasp spider in web by Ben Andrew
This is the exotic looking wasp spider – latin name Argiope Bruennichi.
First recorded in the UK in the 1920’s, these brilliant creatures can now commonly be seen across southern England, along the coast in grassland and woodland areas, even in your back garden if you’re lucky!
Mimicking the pattern of a wasp with black and yellow stripes across its legs and abdomen – it warns potential predators to stay away.
Wasp spider adult female in web by Ben Andrew
But the species – whilst not harmful to us – certainly do pose a risk to some of their own kind... In fact, if I was a male wasp spider I would run as fast as my eight legs would allow!
For starters, the female wasp spider can be up to four times the size of the males, measuring up to 17mm in body.
And just to add insult to injury, the females are known to get rather peckish during mating and will actually eat the male spiders alive after the deed is done!
As well as being ferocious man-eaters, wasp spiders also are fantastic architects, spinning orb-shaped webs with a distinctive zig-zagging pattern. This zig zag design reflects light and is said to attract insects like flies, moths and bees towards it.
The more I’ve researched this fascinating species, the more I’ve been itching to go out and find one!
Luckily for us, they are here at Minsmere at the moment and the best place to see them is on the coastal footpath between North Wall and East Hide (behind the fence on the scrape side).
That's another one of the 70 ticked off the list then!