The Lyons Share

This absolute beauty is a heathland specialist spider called Philodromus histrio. I found it at Iping Common during an afternoon off. My afternoon off not the spider's. It's quite a large spider that I thought had the look of a heathland specialist (the legs look a bit like heather and the strongly contrasting colours allow it to blend in amongst the foliage). It is apparently uncommon although the texts say it does not have a conservation status. Either way it's a real stunner and is a welcome addition to my list. 

There were hundreds of these little bugs everywhere today and I thought perhaps that they would be a heathland specialist too. However, I think that this is the Birch Catkin Bug Kleidocerys resedae. I could well have overlooked the heathland specialist Kleidocerys ericae there. There were so many of them that one landed on my screen of my camera as I was taking this photo.

I also saw a female Orange Underwing feeding on sallow but it was too high to photograph and my first Bee-flies of the year. I ended the day on 3177.