Friday 23 November 2012

Wasp Spider

Wasp Spider, Argiope bruennichi.  Keston Common, 15 September 2012.
I posted a photo of one of these earlier, from a visit to the Ashdown Forest, but they are so remarkable that I think this one is also worth showing.  It's not a native species, but seems to be well established in the UK.

This one was in a wet meadow on Keston Common.  They seem to like wet places.  I can't be sure what it's eating, but it looks as though it could be a bumblebee, Bombus pascuorum.  I saw several of those bees buzzing around the Water Mints in this area.
Posted by Bill Welch at 05:00
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1 comment:

  1. teegee25 November 2012 at 05:44

    It surely looks like the posterior of a toothsome bumblebee. But what an extraordinarily marked spider! I certainly spins wonderfully, but hardly looks friendly even to large species like ourselves. Great photo, of course.

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