The Lyons Share

Had a good walk around Graffham Common today looking over recent management and doing a bit of recording. I didn't find much despite a good search and then just a we were finishing up Jane spotted this gorgeous Araniella displicata. It reminds me of those red and white boiled sweets or a strawberry cheesecake. A nationally rare species often associated with pines, I really wasn't expecting to see this at this time of year having only seen them in the autumn before.

It wouldn't keep still so the photos are not great.

That's spider 91 for the year. Ozyptila trux and Tenuipantes flavipes pushed it up to 93. At Graffham though we have recorded 145 species of spider now and 25 of these have cons status, some 17.2%. It really is pretty special considering where it's come from in such a short time.