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Wasp Spider: |
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Peter Vaughan Senior Member Joined: 21 Mar 2005 No. of posts: 170  View other posts by Peter Vaughan |
Posted: 11 Aug 2006 I visted Hartland in Purbeck this week to look for reptiles and other wildlife. Amongst many other weird and wonderful insects, I came across a couple of Wasp Spiders - one attending to a grasshopper it had caught and another repairing its characteristic zig-zag web. I also saw a female Keeled Skimmer Dragonfly that was happy to be photographed (while she ate a fly).
Peter Peter Vaughan |
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Robert V Senior Member Joined: 06 Aug 2004 No. of posts: 717 View other posts by Robert V |
Posted: 12 Aug 2006 Peter, Great, excellent photos of the spiders. Certainly attractive....For a spider that is! I don't know how far from Hartland, Corfe Castle is, but a friend of mine just came back from there and said that on the beach area below the castle (?) there was two black adders actually on the sand/herbage border and quite close to where kids were playing. sounds like an area well worth a look in September maybe. R RobV |
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Peter Vaughan Senior Member Joined: 21 Mar 2005 No. of posts: 170 View other posts by Peter Vaughan |
Posted: 12 Aug 2006 Robert The area I go to is about a mile north of Corfe Castle, and is one of the Purbeck sites with all six native reptiles present. On the occasion I saw the Wasp Spider I also saw a Grass Snake and a Sand Lizard out basking, in what were relatively dull conditions. I didn't see any Adders basking last week but one one visit to nearby Worth Matravers in May there was one lying out at the edge of a driveway right in the middle of the village. I don't know of anything resembling a beach actually at Corfe Castle: I wonder if your friend was referring to Studland beach which is about five miles from Corfe (one of the main road routes to Studland involves turning off the A351 onto the B3351 opposite the Castle), and is another good reptile site. Best wishes Peter
Peter Vaughan |
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Dasaan Member Joined: 23 Aug 2006 No. of posts: 13 View other posts by Dasaan |
Posted: 23 Aug 2006 Anyone in Hants looking for a wasp spider to photo/study can go to Heath Pond in Petersfield (somtimes also called Petersfield Lake locally). From the car park head around the pond away from the wooden decking. There's a sandy path about 1-200m along the path on the right-hand side. The sandy path is forked where it joins onto the main path around the pond and inbetween the fork is a small gorse bush. This is where the wasp spiders can be found. They are mainly situated in the part of the bush facing the main path. I hope that makes sense to anyone trying to find them :) |
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Robert V Senior Member Joined: 06 Aug 2004 No. of posts: 717 View other posts by Robert V |
Posted: 26 Aug 2006 Peter, slightly off topic, but, I just so happened to see a 'Peter Vaughan' on the list for members of Epping Forest Conservation volunteers....Is that you? Cheers Robert RobV |
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Peter Vaughan Senior Member Joined: 21 Mar 2005 No. of posts: 170 View other posts by Peter Vaughan |
Posted: 26 Aug 2006 Hi Rob No, I'm in the North East Hampshire area. But getting back to Wasp Spiders, there was considerable excitement today when they turned up at Bartley Heath As this is primarily a reptile forum, I can also report that it was also an excellent day for seeing Common Lizards out on the Heath. We had dozens of sightings between 10am and 2pm, with lizards out on logs and on Mollinia tussocks etc. Conditions were good with no appreciable breeze, warm rather than hot temperatures and mostly overcast/ occassional hazy sunshine and the odd short rain shower. One person found what looked like the shed skin off a lizards tail as well. Only one sighting of a grass snake out basking amongst the birch saplings and heather - still you can't have everything! Peter Peter Vaughan |
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herpetologic2 Senior Member Joined: 15 Jun 2004 No. of posts: 1369  View other posts by herpetologic2 |
Posted: 27 Aug 2006
It would have been good to make a record of the numbers seen across the reserve to help monitor the conditions found there Regards Jon PS hopefully I will be arranging a field meeting with HWT there later this sept Vice Chair of ARG UK - self employed consultant - visit ARG UK & Alresford Wildlife |
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arvensis Senior Member Joined: 15 Mar 2006 No. of posts: 445 View other posts by arvensis |
Posted: 27 Aug 2006 Another place for Wasp Spider is Magdelan Hill, E of Winchester. As for Bartley Heath, that was one place I was going to have a look at somewhen. Is it worth the short drive up the M3? I've got a week off now so I've got to find things to do.. Mark Hampshire Amphibian and Reptile Group. |
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Peter Vaughan Senior Member Joined: 21 Mar 2005 No. of posts: 170 View other posts by Peter Vaughan |
Posted: 27 Aug 2006 Jon - I assume you are referring to the Common Lizards, rather than the spiders! in which case I agree it would have been good to get a more precise count and geographical distribution. However the focus of Saturday's event was a count of the Marsh Gentian population over one (large) area of Bartely Heath, using 20 or so volunteers walking in a line, in non-overlapping sweeps until the whole area was covered. I'm not sure what the technical term is for that sort of survey (whole area search?). But it was enough of a task to keep accurate numbers of the Gentians (794 in total) - sighings of the Lizard and Spiders were incidental to that and I doubt it would have been practical to attempt a simultaneous multi-taxon count. We did a similar exercise this time last year and, as I recall, saw only relatively few lizards. It is possible I suppose that there has been a population jump - nearly all of those we saw this year were juvenile/sub-adults, but I suspect the increase in sightings was because weather conditions were not as good for tempting them out and, perhaps, some of us have got better at spotting them. On a different subject - I had a sighting of an Adder at 08:45 on 20 August, at the nearby site where we met in the Spring. Or rather on the fringes of the site as the interior is currently an impenetrable mass of green Braken up to 2 meters high. Still at least that should provide secure cover for most of the population. Mark - Is Bartley Heath a good place to visit - well I like it! Regards Peter
Peter Vaughan |
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arvensis Senior Member Joined: 15 Mar 2006 No. of posts: 445 View other posts by arvensis |
Posted: 30 Aug 2006 Peter, If you could send me a PM with details of best place to park my car for the reptile population then that would be most appreciated. Cheers, Mark Hampshire Amphibian and Reptile Group. |
- Wasp Spider |
, my local reserve reserve. Hampshire Wildlife Trust was holding its annual count of the Marsh Gentian at the Heath, (which is doing very well at the site), in the course of which we found three Wasp Spiders. As far as we know this is the first time it has been recorded in the area. So I no longer need to drive down to Dorset to see this striking spider, or even other parts of Hampshire, but instead now find it within walking distance of my home.
As well as the Common Lizard population there are a number of Grass Snakes about, although the latter seem harder to find this time of year compared to earlier in the summer when the gravid females are basking (I was there from 09:00 to 10:20 this morning - the lizards were out again but no snakes). No confirmed sightings of Slow Worm, as far as I'm aware but almost certainly they are on site - we need to get some refugia down to confirm. As regards other wildlife, the local butterflies are well past their peak by late August but at the moment there are large numbers of orthoptera and other insects, as well as the resident Roe Deer and, often, Buzzards overhead.