A plethora of Pholcidae in the privy...

Here it is then, that second update I promised a short while ago...

This one will either be the most exciting thing you have ever seen...

Or...will bore the pants off you...

If it's the latter; you know where the door is, don't slam it as you leave please... 

Alright then, for anybody that is still with me, I vote that we crack on with this update for at least two reasons. Number one, the sooner we get started, the sooner we can scroll down the page and leave these bloody annoying moving images behind. Number two, well, there isn't actually a number two, other than the fact that I need to stop stalling and confess that this update deals solely with....SPIDERS! 

Jeez! After all that, you are still here, no putting you off is there! Okay then, just for the two of us, here it comes...

Sometime in late August, I noticed that the Cellar spider that had become something of a fixture in the little loo (bathroom, John, toilet, WC, Khazi)  had produced an egg sac. I recall thinking at the time that I should maybe photograph it and record the progress. It wasn't until the 25th of the month though, that I actually found the time to get my first image...

I then took another picture on August 30th...

By September 4th the eggs had begun to change in appearance...

Come 7 days later, tiny spiderling eyes were just visible...

The next time I got to photograph them was the 14th and by now they were looking almost ready to emerge...

I checked several times throughout that day, but no real change. Next morning when I looked, I was certain that it was imminent. At 1.50pm I checked again, and sure enough, a few had appeared..

Tiny and almost transparent, but a real treat to see. I left it about 25 minutes and checked again; by which time there were around a dozen newly born spiderlings...

One hour later, they were exiting thick and fast...

I was unable to get any further photographs until just before 7pm the same evening. When I did manage another shot, I was almost speechless at the sight of this huge bundle of baby spiders, still in the jaws of mum!

By now she had lovingly cared for her brood by sitting guard over them relentlessly. I only saw her relinquish her grip on the egg sac once, and within a few minutes, it was safely back with her. Moreover, she had not fed for three weeks, as far as I could tell. Here she is at about 9pm the same evening; now she has in excess of 30 youngsters to tend...

The next morning, September 16th at around 7am, I checked on them once more and this was what I saw...

Finally! Mum was now sitting guard from a little distance and all of the eggs were now empty.

I was really interested to observe what happened next. I had read conflicting reports of post emergence behaviour by the female. One article insisted that she died very soon after the spiderlings emerged. Another said that the young climb onto their mother's back, in a similar way to wolf spiders.

Actually neither of these things happened, as I observed them over the next few days. In fact, very little changed at all. Quite how the multitude of spiderlings will source enough food to sustain them all is beyond me. If they behave like the false widow spiderlings in my garden, then they may well have cannibalistic tendencies!

Whatever becomes of them, it was a privilege to  be gifted with documenting their start in life and I hope that you agree there is something fascinating about witnessing an event that most people will never see: if not, I don't really care ;-)

Immature by any other name...

Sometimes you have to play Sherlock to find a hiding bug...

That's if you actually want to find a bug of course, and I know you probably don't; but this IDIOT does. Damn...got so excited then, I spilled my water over the keypad! Talk amongst yourselves whilst I mop up...

Tehre htat smees ebbetter....Mabye ont! 

Ah, there we are, back to normality. So then, the clue in this instance, was in the poop...

I was touring the garden to see what might be around after rain one day, when I saw this rather large poo on a leaf and immediately thought to myself, how could I have missed something that makes that size poo? 

A bit more investigation revealed that the leaf directly above had been nibbled at the edges: still no sign of the culprit though.

It took me a while, but eventually, having turned over many, many leaves and finally a few flowers, I did locate my bug. It had been the work of a Sawfly larva (yes, I know, they do look just like caterpillars) and a rather large one at that...

Now I cannot say for certain, but this could be Zaraea fasciata the Honeysuckle Sawfly. The plant it is feeding on is Himalayan Honeysuckle (Leycesteria formosa) which fits well. I wanted to see if I could get some kind of shot of it feeding. These seem to be nocturnal, and as I just happened to be around at 4.15am one morning, I took camera and flash into the garden and managed this next picture in the pitch black...

I had another great garden find when I spotted a tiny white spider that was moulting. This is a spiderling called Misumena vatia. It was very small and so I would guess this was either its first or second moult. The young spiders reach a size of about 5 mm by autumn and then spend the winter on the ground...

They really are quite remarkable spiders. Not only do they have the ability to change colour from white to yellow, they also attempt to disguise themselves as flowers in order to attract prey...

So then, now that I have scared the bejesus out of all of the arachnophobes, of which I know there are plenty more than arachnophiles; we, that is, I should consider something less likely to cause anguish amongst the squeamish. How about a Shieldbug, surely nobody can be repulsed by these harmless critters? Who couldn't love an insect that discharges large amounts of foul-smelling liquid when disturbed? Although I have yet to be convinced of this habit, as in all the years I have been acquainted with them, not once has one defecated in this manner. 

I found this one in the process of moulting...

This is the Hawthorn Shieldbug (Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale) which becomes an adult late in the year, then overwinters by hibernating. By the way, there is no truth to the rumour that touching this particular species will give you Hemorrhoids! How can I be absolutely sure? Because I just made it up: smiley face, LOL, ROTFL...

This is how it will look once the moult is complete

Now this is QI... whilst checking out this species on the most excellent 'British Bugs' website, I read the following passage: The larvae occur May-October, feeding mainly on hawthorn berries, although a range of other deciduous trees are also used, inlcuding oak, hazel and birch.

Hmmmm...leaving aside the typo (inlcuding), why do they refer to the immature bugs as 'larvae' I wonder? Surely, larvae  are the immature forms of insects like butterflies, flies, beetles etc, and are very different to the adult, undergoing complete metamorphosis before becoming sexually mature. Whilst 'nymphs', which I think is the correct term, are the immature stage of  insects that undergo incomplete metamorphosis. The newly hatched baby is a miniature, wingless version of the adult. What say you? Oh! You don't care! 

But at least this monster isn't fast and scary, like the spiders can be (apparently), no, this one is in fact quite...sluggish!

Yes, this is just an Arion species of slug that I photo'd in the garden one day after rain. Probably Arion rufus, also called the Large Red Slug and Chocolate Arion; not sure how tasty they are though.

I also found this smart hoverfly on the same day in the garden...

Xylota segnis - a male Hoverfly

At which point I think I shall curtail any thoughts of adding to this blog update because I have another already in the mix and will publish that real soon. How about a conundrum to finish with: do you think that this native, seven-spot ladybird is about to make one huge meal of those moth eggs?