Continental visitor arrives at Venus Pools.

With the arrival back in the twenties in the south of the country, the Wasp spider has, over the intervening years firmly established a good and expanding colonisation of the more southerly areas. The expansion of its range was last reported to have reached Gloucestershire, however that has changed

 considerably over the years, and now, a discovery of a colony having settled in at Venus Pools.

The above female is guarding her nest amongst the grass stems, which are very difficult to find.

They are one of the spiny spiders which do bite! although not poisonous some may have a reaction so best to leave them well alone. The markings on this spider are spectacular to say the least and as with all spiders will consume the male after mating, however the male will wait until she sheds her skin and go in for the mating, as at this time her fangs are still soft, mind you they dont always get it right.

The web is similer to the well know orb but has a zigzag called the stabilimentum through the centre, this is thought to add stability to the web and make it visible to possibly birds to stop them flying through the web.

What a fantastic Spider to have on the reserve.

Another well good species I have come across recently is the Plumed Tussock moth caterpillar

Another brilliant and wierd catapillar that fits in with many of the amazing caterillars in the UK

the moth however is unassuming a small brown moth quite often found in houses after following bright lights that  have been on during their flight time.

Ok so what else did I come acrosss today? well after the rain and the slightly warmer temperatures was the chance of some more fungi appearing around the reserve? there were a few but it still looks a bit dry for some of the more delicate porcelain types, however I did find several as can be seen from the following, and I am sure more will be found around the county woods in the next week.

 

So nothing spectacular in these, but they are there for anyone to find, and I would be interested in reports of fungi from around the county, please use the yahoo group facility.

There you go another little update on what has been going on and hopefully another soon.

thanks for looking come again.

cheers

paul