a tale of the unexpected

...some of you will know that I was trying to find some of our local (Purbeck) wasp spiders over the last few weeks, but without success. This morning, being our first full day back in Lunigiana, I went to survey the garden to plan which tasks were most urgent. Our beautiful lavender hedge has suffered terribly because it hasn't rained in our part of Italy since May (or so our neighbours tell us). Anyway, there I am looking at the lavender, when I suddenly realise that I am looking straight at a wasp spider Argiope bruennichi - in our garden! Now, it is not as though they are rare here and, of course, to see one back in the UK would be a great spot, but I have never seen one in the garden here in any of the five years that I have been here. Consequently, I am very happy :-) I took this image immediately, even though she is deep within the lavender where it was difficult to get a good shot, but I can now expect to get some more images while we are here.

This afternoon, I made a start on clipping back the lavender and tidying the weeds around it. On one of my trips to the compost heap, I noticed something bright moving within the clippings I was holding. On closer inspection, there was another wasp spider! I have returned it to the hedge where, hopefully, it will spin a new web overnight.

You may be interested to know that an average orb web is created from approximately 20 metres of silk that has a total weight of less than half a milligram and yet can support the weight of a spider weighing as much as 2.25 grams...