Wasp spider

I had slight trepidation about sharing a room with Alex and Chris, but to my great relief neither of them snored! However, I still didn't sleep very well, thanks to the traffic noise, with vehicles passing by most of the night, possibly because of our proximity to Gatwick airport. Still a refreshing shower and an amazing breakfast perked me up.

The bulk of the day was spent carrying out an extended Phase 1 survey of a very large quarry, after the statutory induction which took over an hour. Chris surveyed most of the southern side on his own - apparently he now has a renewed respect for botanists!! There wasn't very much time to admire any other wildlife, though we found shells of Roman snails and Alex spotted this adult female wasp spider Argiope bruenichii. Of course, as I was travelling light I didn't have a macro lens - though I'm not sure it would have helped in the very gusty breeze, which had her swaying around all over the place.

It owes its common name its wasp-like markings, but unlike many a wasp, it is quite harmless and highly unlikely that it will hurt you. Adults mature in August and September and it is at this time that the large webs of the females can be found. These can measure 30cm across. At the hub of the web is a characteristic vertical band of iridescent silk, the stabilimentum. Here the spider spends most of her time, waiting for prey to fly in. This band of silk may help to camouflage her. Crickets and grasshoppers are a favourite meal for the large females, but flies and other insects are also on the menu.

Argiope was first recorded in Britain in 1922 when it was caught at Rye in East Sussex. The spider is now widespread along the South coast and has spread inland in Kent, Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Essex and even Derbyshire. To breed it requires a minimum of three months warm weather and a mild winter. With the shift in our climate, these conditions are becoming increasingly more frequent.

We finally finished our work a bit after 4.30pm, when we noticed that the quarry was suddenly devoid of other humans. As i didn't fancy the M25 at rush hour, we found another pub, where I drank elderflower presse and coffee and the boys downed a few beers. They had excellent wasabi nuts - in a couple of hours we ate most of their stock! The journey home was speedy and uneventful, and Pete had a beef chili waiting for us - after which I crashed out - hence the backblipping.