Wasp Spider (Argiope bruennichi L.) a new garden record

July the 18th 2022 was an auspicious day for garden listing. A single record of Phasia obesa brought the garden list to a nice round 500 species, and the day flying Six-spot Burnet (Zygaena filipendulae stephensi), pushed it on to 501.

Phasia obesa

A re-appraisal of a photo from March 21st 2021 - also identified Nomada fucata. A record that at the time I had submitted to the UK BWARS Facebook page for verification. Then had promptly forgotten about it. The list now stood at 502.

Overnight, the 20W Actinic Skinner Trap proceeded to furnish me with 13 new moths, from amongst the 143 of 66 species. When the moth trap intruders (4 of 3 species) were collated, Wasp Spider was added, bringing the day's total to 17 new invertebrates for the garden. A day's haul worthy of the first few weeks of moth-trapping, whereby nearly every other moth was by virtue of novelty, new for the garden.

male Wasp Spider

Of all the new records that day, it was the male Wasp Spider that really caught my imagination. I have only seen this species twice previously - once in Madeira and again a single specimen on Portsdown Hill - both females.

Spiders in general being one of the many weak points in my identification skill set - I ran the spider past the UK Spiders Facebook Group for verification. With the identification confirmed - the following weeks and months found me scouting for girls and their unmistakable webs throughout the wildflower lawn. To no avail.

Last Sunday, I cut back the wildflower lawn. The strimmer not being up to the task I selectively used the hedge-cutter. Although back-breaking this was less intrusive in its cutting affect and enabled me to keep my eye-in to avoid shredding anything of note. As always, I left patches of the lawn uncut, as refuges. I made a mental note to invest in a scythe for next autumn.

This afternoon, taking a stroll around the denuded lawn I noticed an orb about the size of a human eyeball hanging on to the top of a grass stem. Then a second, and a third. Not entirely sure what I was looking at - I picked one up. A seed head perhaps? However, knowing the local wildflowers, this did not make sense?

Wasp Spider egg-sacs

I carefully pulled open the papery exterior, revealing a brown fibrous inner - with a core comprising a dense white structure. It finally dawned on me that this was a spider's egg-sac and given its size - I reckoned Wasp Spider was a good candidate. A Google search, confirmed the ID.

Wasp Spider egg-sac - opened

The opened egg sac has gone into the spare fish tank, in the hope that I can successfully hatch the young - as it would be a shame to lose them to curiosity.

Covid-19 pt 1 .. wildlife encounters in Lockdown ..

My last blog post was March 23rd 2020 .. that very evening the UK Government placed the country in Lockdown due to Covid-19. All travel restricted to essential travel only .. the mantra "Stay at Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives" becoming the Uber message of the proceeding weeks. It would be perhaps trite and a more than a little pointless to say that we are now living through exceptional times.

Three weeks on and we are sitting in the living room, watching the @folkonfoot #FrontRoomFest. Kris Drever's doing the last song of his set. A is finishing her knitted blanket and I'm wading through the many photographs I have taken over the last three weeks of COVID-19 Lockdown. We are safe and well

Kris Drever, Folk on Foot "Front Room Festival" April 13th 2020

Folk on Foot

Many of these photos will have been taken of the garden invertebrates; some old friends, some new friends as yet to be named.

The rest of these photographs have been taken en route of our "one daily exercise" walks. Walking out to the local chalk downs, or the follow down the road to Hazleton Common for our extended fix of #NaturalHealthService.

Blessed with living within close easy access to the countryside, we have not forgotten how tough it must be for friends and family, locked down in cities both here and abroad, and not seeing any end to this crisis as yet.

With the weather being exceptionally dry and sunny over this period, I have started to make best use of the Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland (Falk, S. & Lewington, R. 2017 edition). This book was gifted to me by a very thoughtful friend two summers ago, but to date had remained little used - whilst I explored and obsessed over the hoverflies that visited the garden.

Apis mellifera

Andrena nigroaenea

Andrena cineraria

Bombus lapidarius

Osmia bicornis

I have also welcomed the return of some of my favourite mini-beasts to the garden (their special place in my heart well documented elsewhere in this Blog).

Bombylius discolor

Bombylius major

Bombylius discolor on Primula veris

Two new bugs were also added to the garden list in the form of Rophalus (Rophalus) subufrus and Corizos hyoscyami, whilst Coccinella septumpunctata and Vespula germanica made their first appearances of the year. Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) reappeared bringing with it tidings of hope and promise.

Rophalus (Rophalus) subufrus

Corizos hyoscyami

Coccinella septumpunctata

Vespula germanica

Gonepteryx rhamni

Eristalis pertinax was recorded in the garden for the first time, having achieved a suitably detailed set of photographs to allow its successful identification.

Eristalis pertinax

On a morning's round trip to Catherington Down we were reacquainted with the parasitic toothwort (Lathraea squamaria) growing at the base of an aged sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) within Catherington Lith. In total 35 spikes were noted of this very intriguing species.

Lathraea squamaria

At Hazleton Common we encountered our first amphibians of the year, with tens of palmate newt (Lissotriton helveticus) being observed in the three small ponds despite the turbidity of the water.

Lissotriton helveticus

Aglais io

Bombylius major

Crossing the horse paddocks, on our way to Catherington Down we watched a small flock of Mediterranean gull (Larus melanocephalus) flexing their hormones with many displays and mating attempts noted.

Larus melanocephalus

Catherington Pond produced sightings of common frog (Rana temporaria) tadpoles and Helophilus pendulus.

Rana temporaria

Helophilus pendulus

Dactylorhiza fuchsii Parsonage Green

Macroglossum stellatarum Green Lane

We are certainly very fortunate to be able to experience such bio-diversity within our immediate local landscape at the best of times. Under the severe stress of this Covid-19 Lockdown, I value ever more so the #NaturalHealthService, for helping to sustain and maintain our mental-health well-being.

However, it is beyond necessary to fully thank the NHS health workers, and Care-workers on the front-line risking their own health to protect, promote and provide health and welfare to the sick and vulnerable: Thank you.

To the shop assistants, delivery drivers, farmers, warehouse workers and Post Office workers who are all working their a*ses off to ensure that we have the food, and the small luxuries to sustain us during this difficult time. Thank you.

Blessed Be