The Lyons Share

This is the final part of my spidering trip to the south east and the plot twist that makes every good season finale. We headed up on to the edge of Bodmin to a woodland site called Cardinham Woods.

Right back to the woods and Tylan found me another life in about five seconds, Cryphoeca silvicola at the top of the post. And nearby the commonest spider I hadn't seen this year, Tegenaria sylvestris. Then we climbed the hill through spruce plantation but the ground flora was dominated by bramble and not very interesting. A bit higher and we found some heather regenerating in a clearfel area and it was almost totally devoid of spiders. Then a nice warm south-facing heathy bank. Almost totally devoid of spiders. I did find what I believe is Brown Snail Zenobiella subrufescens that I have been looking at on the front of the atlas for the last ten years. 

We spent a good hour and a half finding next to nothing. Then, a dark and dank spruce plantation that was freezing cold beckoned. There was no light. No vascular plants BUT a carpet of bryophytes. It looked just like the end scenes of Under the Skin.

We needed to use our phone torches to see despite clear skies a few metres away. I started sieiving Thuidium tamariscinum and that's where ALL the linys were! 

In less than an hour we added loads of new species. Four for my year list, three of which were lifers for me! Best of all was this Centromerus serratus, nationally rare and new to Cornwall!

Gongylidiellum latebricola (nationally scarce) was abundant there, only the 2nd time I have seen this and new for the year. Lots of Monocephalus were present and both castanipes (nationally scarce) and fulvipes were present. Also there were plenty of Coelotes atropos, Macrargus rufus and a few nice things that Tylan took. A weird pale liny turned out to be Porrhomma pallidum (a lifer - thanks to Tylan for the photo below) and on the way back down the hill, Walckenaeria alticeps (nationally scarce) and another lifer. It was remarkable how much there was compared to the heath. Quite counter intuitive. Anyway, a massive thanks to everyone but especially to Tylan and Matt. I am very pleased with 367 spiders, I hope this is going to be an opportunity to push this up a little more though. 

Here is the full list for the weekend, 91 species in all with 21 (22%) having conservation status. Which show just how much there is to see even in the middle of winter. I had 16 lifers (species in bold) and 18 species new for the year! What's remarkable though is that a quarter of the 367 species of spider I have seen this year I saw in a long weekend in December!!!

Achaeranea simulans
Achaeranea tepadorium
Agroeca cuprea	NR
Amaurobius fenestralis
Amaurobius similis
Anelosimus vittatus
Anyphaenea accentuata
Araneus diadematus
Bathyphantes gracilis
Centromerita concinna
Centromerus dilutus
Centromus serratus	NR
Ceratinella brevipes
Cercidia prominens	NS
Clubiona corticalis
Clubiona genevensis	NR
Cnephalocotes obscurum
Coelotes atropos
Crustulina guttata
Cryphoeca silvicola
Cryptachaea blattea
Dictyna latens
Dipoena inornata	NS
Dolomedes fimbriatus	NS
Episinus angulatus
Episinus maculipes	NS
Eratagina saeva
Erigone atra
Erigone dentipalpis
Euophrys frontalis
Euophrys herbigrada	NR
Gnaphosa occidentalis	NR
Gnathonarium dentatum
Gonatium rubens
Gongylidiellum latebricola	NS
Gongylidiellum vivum
Harpactea hombergi
Hypsosinga sanguinea	NS
Labulla thoracica
Lepthyphantes leprosus
Lepthyphantes minutus
Macrargus rufus
Mangora acalypha
Meioneta mollis	NR
Meioneta rurestris
Metellina mengei
Metellina merianae
Micrommata virescens	NS
Microneta viaria
Minyriolus pusilus
Monocephalus castaneipes	NS
Monocephalus fuscipes
Neon reticulatus
Neottiura bimaculata
Neriene clathrata
Neriene montana
Neriene peltata
Nesticus cellulanus
Nigma puella	NS
Nophothantes horridus	NR
Padiscura pallens
Palliduphantes pallidus
Pelecopsis susannae
Philodromus dispar
Pholcomma gibbum
Pholcus phalangioides
Phrurolithus festivus
Phylloneta sisyphia
Pisaura mirabilis
Porrhomma pallidum
Savignya frontata
Segestria bavaraica	NR
Steatoda nobilis
Taranuncus setosus	NS
Tegenaria sylvestris
Tenuiphantes alacris
Tenuiphantes cristatus
Tenuiphantes tenuis
Tenuiphantes zimmermanni
Theridion varians
Theridiosoma gemmosum	NS
Thyreosthenius parasitcus
Tiso vagans
Uloberus plumipes
Walckenaeria alticeps	NS
Walckenaeria nodosa	NS
Walckenaeria nudipalpis
Xystcius erraticus
Zilla diodea
Zora spinimana
Zygiella x-notata

I left the gang in Devon and headed to Cornwall for some spidering action with Tylan on his patch. We headed down to Kynance Cove on the Lizard, I have never been there before. I think the first hour that we spent on the cliffs at Kynance Cove was the highlight of the weekend. We were threatened by a horrendous on shore wind but storm cells that just kept missing us, the wind was battering the coast, you could feel the vibrations at the top of the cliffs! So despite hellish weather all around us, we remained dry. And best of all the spiders lined up to throw themselves at us. Five national rarities in an hour and four of them were lifers for me!

First up Gnaphosa occidentalis. I was really gutted I couldn't get down in the summer but this sub adult male was absolutely stunning. Really solid and tarantula-like with such a chocolatey abdomen. This is one handsome spider. Found under scattered stones on the grassy cliffs.

Then Tylan suggested looking at the cliffs themselves for Segestria bavarica. I found a lightning fast immature that disappeared in a crack. Then on the next rock I lifted up this amazing mature female. This all happened in the space of about ten minutes. This was a really big spider, there are no records for adult females on the recording scheme for December.

Then we got the suction sampler out in the same area and on the third go I got Tylan a rather special lifer. Agroeca cuprea! An adult male and the first record for Cornwall in 51 years! Soon after this we got a young female Euophrys herbigrada that we think is doable even at this stage. I must admit if Tylan had not found them on the site I would not be ticking this species but it certainly looked good to us both. It's much hairier, greyer and with thick white and black hairs that are more in stripes. It's darker with paler stripes rather than paler with a grid of darker markings as in frontalis. We recorded Hypsosinga sanguinea new to Cornwall and picked up another Dipoena inornata.

We carried on looking for linys but nothing exciting came out of the specimens. I found this odd plant in ericaceous tussocks which, with a little help from Mark Gurney, I realised I had stumbled on Hairy Greenweed! A lifer!

And another lifer but one I was expecting, Cornish Heath at long last! I also learnt that although Black Bog-rush forms an impressive tussock, it is very solid and does not accumulate too much plant litter. As such it is an inferior tussock compared to the likes or Purple Moor-grass and Greater Tussock-sedge.

I can't thank Tylan enough for this day, it was a really magic day in the field. Now there is one final write up. Tylan and family were kind enough to let me crash on Sunday night and on Monday we headed to the woods. The whole weekend is looking like a species list of over 80 species! As of today, I am only TWO species behind Matt on 367 species for the year. There are 21 days left in 2019 and it's getting very close...

I'd rather not be writing this post here at 5.00 am after only four hours sleep before my penultimate day at work but this is just too important. So hear I am nailing my colours to the mast.

It won't be a surprise to my Facebook friends where I stand on this but I have always kept quiet on my blog about politics but I have had enough and had to say something, even if it sways just one person to not vote Tory it's worth it. And it's my platform and I can say what I like. I might alienate a few people here but this is just too huge a thing to ignore.

Just have a look here to see the damage the last nine years of unnecessary Tory austerity (it was a choice, not an inevitability and was nothing to do with Labour, it was all about bailing out the bankers) has done to Natural England. Funding has been cut by more than 50% since 2010.

How are NE meant to do all the things they should be doing looking after our SSSIs with these crippling cuts? Such as assessing, advising and enforcing? This alone is having a dramatic effect on our wildlife and this alone is reason enough to not vote for them again.

TORIES HAVE A TERRIBLE RECORD ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Just look at the policies in the manifestos, if you are not sure where your politics fits with the policies, then please take the time to go through the 'Vote for Policies' website. You might be surprised! Anyway, the Tories have little interest in doing anything sensible with climate change. Do you want our country to go down the route of America, just so we can inflict self harm on ourselves over an obsession with leaving the EU? Take a minute and think of the real issues at hand here.

LEAVING THE EU WILL DAMAGE WILDLIFE LEGISLATION

I don't think the laws we have from the EU are perfect and we could do with more protected species and a different approach but we will NOT get this by leaving the EU. If this hateful Tory Party gets a majority they will see that as a mandate to leave the EU dramatically and the laws we have that protect species and important places will be ripped up so that it is easier to develop, make no mistake.

NEARLY EVERYONE IN THE CONSERVATION SECTOR VOTES PROGRESSIVELY

Yes I live and work in a bubble. Has the last nine years taken a huge toll on me watching my country go down the pan? Absolutely. It's hugely distracting from the natural history and wildlife conservation that I should be doing.

I WOULDN'T BE DOING MY JOB IF I WAS 18 NOW

I grew up on a council estate below the poverty line in Staffordshire. I live a different life down here due to social mobility, partly down to not paying huge tuition fees back in late 1990s. I would not be doing the job I am doing now if I were 18 now. Austerity has destroyed social mobility. You meet very few people in conservation now who do not come from middle class backgrounds. Volunteering is not on your radar when you don't have enough money to eat.

I am proud of my roots. This Tory government have took everything away from the poorest in our country and in return handed them a tiny morsel, a thimble full of poison. A vote that most people didn't fully understand or research (and I categorically stand by this - because I didn't either, if I had known just how much we stood to lose I would have campaigned harder back then). This summer our Parliament did exactly what it should have done to block Brexit being pushed through (I was outside Parliament the day the proroguing was announced). Bercow is a national hero and one day will be recognised for it. A second referendum is the only way to end this nightmare.

The BBC, the Sun, the Mail and the others have done an amazing job in turning the poorest people, those in the Labour heart lands, against the one person who is trying to help them. The tragic thing about the way you hear people talking about Corbyn is awful. People have and do believe the lies about being an IRA supporter and an antisemite. If you fall in this category of a lifelong Labour supporter and are about to vote Tory just because you desperately want Brexit and have believed the lies about Corbyn please, please think this through. This vote is for FIVE more years of Hell under the Tories. Five more years of cuts, of homeless on the streets, of food banks, of NHS waiting lists. PLUS the chaos of a hard Tory Brexit and the destruction it will do to our country.

Further to this, when I hear people say about Corbyn "he's boring", "he's week", "I can't get my head around him". Just stop reading the Sun for one minute and look at what people DO not what they SAY. I know that is hard as politics is really about what people say but you have a record here of what the Tories stand for, they have been in power for nine years and look what they have done to our country. We are in a total mess because of them. Public services stretched to their limits.

Standing up for the weakest in our society while not being a loud, brash bully are not signs of weakness, they are signs of strength. What does it say about the state of our country that so few people can recognise strong leadership and that so many people are so easily led to believe exactly what the press want them to believe? Wake up people. Our country is gripped by a collective mental health crisis and the Tories and the press are our abusers. I bet you have all met someone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (think Donald Trump). They use tactics like gaslighting, triangulation and projection to manipulate you, I have been there. Once you can see it though, you can never not see it. This government are very fond of projection. Accusing your victim of the very things you are doing to them. Just look at the smears they have pushed on Corbyn. Take a look at things objectively and try and make a decision that you have made, rather than regurgitating sound bites.

Yes I will be voting Labour and I would love to see a  socialist government in the UK once in my lifetime but I am actually more concerned about getting rid of the Tories than anything else. You should absolutely vote tactically in this and every election until we have proportional representation. The outdated political system we have here favours the Tories (as it does the larger parties). So whatever you do, if you care about wildlife, if you care about people, if you care about anything but your own pocket, please, please, please vote progressively. Vote Labour where you can can but if not, like in Brighton Pavilion, vote Green and in seats where Lib Dems are likely to get in like Lewes and Eastbourne, then vote for them. It's not hard to do a little research and find out who the party to vote for is to oust the Tories.

My home town of Rugeley was always a Labour seat until last time when it swung to Tory. It sadly has a 69% leave vote but please, I beg my hometown not to screw themselves over voting to make their lives worse. Vote Labour in Rugeley again, get the Tories out!

I think this video by George Monbiot sums it up so well. Please watch this if you are undecided.

Brexit isn't worth it. Our country has been screwed by Tory austerity and not EU membership. Brexit just isn't worth voting Tory for. There is another way we can be governed. Please do the right thing.

Wow. What a weekend. I had wanted to keep up with my blogs over the weekend but slow wi-fi in the B&B scuppered that. Anyway, this is Saturday's adventure...

So many people, so many arachnids. I finally got to meet Tylan Berry and Debs Rylands yesterday (who was kind enough to take this shot of the 'spider year-listers'). Nicola Bacciu drove us down to Plymouth where we met up with Tylan, Kev, Debs, James McGill and John Walters. 

Our first site was arguably the rarest spider in Britain. Within minutes we had seen FOUR Horrid Ground-weavers Nothophantes horridus. Now this is an endemic spider, only known since 1989 and only from a handful of extremely threatened sites. We saw 3% of all the Nothophantes horridus that have ever been seen in the world in an an hour. I think from looking at the habitat the hyphen is in the wrong place and Horrid-ground Weaver is more apt. No suction samplers needed at this point, just turning over stones. Or without the hyphen, I think it is the best name for our band in the top photo, the Horrid Ground Weavers!

A male in the first photo and a female in the second photo. That's a Tramp Slug for scale. And a quick video.

A photo from John Walters of all photographing horridus.

Then James found one of the other targets, Centetostoma bacilliferum. It looks like Pinhead from Hellraiser. The Cenobite version of a regular harvestman.

Then I stupidly got Matt a year tick, Epsinus maculipes. I was actually increasing the gap! Also present, only the third time I have ever seen Dipoena inornata.

Then onto another site where I stumbled across a botanical lifer, only my third ever broomrape being Ivy Broomrape.

And the incredibly strange little orange harvestman that is Scotolemon doriae. What an odd little thing it is.

And a video. Why does someone always ruin them with swearing!?

Then I had TWO lifers in the car park leaving the site. Eratagina saeva!

And of course, Cryptachaea blattea! Thanks Tylan for showing me that one. Bigger than I thought it would be.

Then back to Bovey Tracey for Matt's first for Britain. The tiny Pelecopsis susannae which we found without too much effort sampling tree trunks. All in all it was an amazing day, a huge thank you for everyone involved. Next up I head to Cornwall for even more spider action. I will add though that as of today I am only THREE species behind Matt on 366 species having had 15 lifers in Devon and Cornwall. When I publish the 4th day I will write out the species list for all four days as it is pretty epic.

This is my big spider weekend in the south west. Can I close the gap between myself and Matt? Yet what better way to get distracted from the spiders than with the gorgeous Blue Ground Beetle Carabus intricatus. It had been very wet, so yesterday morning was damp but good for spidering, the afternoon though was pretty soggy and a heavy down poor made suction sampling difficult. I met up with John Walters who kindly agreed to show me one of these magnificent beasts and also unexpectedly Kev Rylands, who I have not seen for nine years and is now a fellow top 20 pan-species lister. Just re-read that and it sounds like we found Kev in the field like a woodland creature (I can confirm Kev came with us and we didn't record him).

It's always a pleasure spending time with naturalists in the field on their patch, the last time I met John was the day that inspired me to write the first of my two Calosoma sycophanta blogs. I learned so much in the couple of hours we were together. Here are some more shots of this gorgeous beetle and a wee video showing how long and gangly it is.

And here is a common Carabus problematicus for comparison, just to show how different intricatus is. It looks very squat and plain in comparison.

And on the way back Kev spotted this amazing Witch's Whiskers Usnea florida! A lifer.

What a stunning landscape Dartmoor is. I have never really spent much time here.

Now for the spiders. The first species I recorded at Yarner Wood was actually Micrommata virescens! (if you don't include the two species I got at a service station that is). You know it's gonna be a good day when that's the first spider you find on a site.

By 10.30 am I got a new site/new 10 km square record and my favourite genus. Walckenaeria nodosa and Matt tells me only the third record for Dartmoor, this was in Sphagnum moss. I also picked up Stenus kiesenwetteri which John says is new to Dartmoor!

My other new spider for the day was Tenuiphantes alacris, Which just shows how little spidering I do in the north or west, it's really scarce in the south east.

Here is the spider list up to yesterday for the trip. Quite a few added today in another amazing day in the field but that will have to wait for another day! Loving it down here.

Amaurobius fenestralis

Bathyphantes gracilis

Centromerus dilutus

Cercidia prominens

Crustulina guttata

Dolomedes fimbriatus

Gonatium rubens

Gongylidiellum vivum

Mangora acalypha

Metellina mengei

Metellina merianae

Micrommata virescens

Nesticus cellulanus

Pholcus phalangioides

Phrurolithus festivus

Pisaura mirabilis

Savignya frontata

Steatoda nobilis

Taranuncus setosus

Tenuiphantes alacris

Tenuiphantes cristatus

Tenuiphantes zimmermanni

Theridiosoma gemmosum

Tiso vagans

Walckenaeria nodosa

Zilla diodea

Zora spinimana

Zygiella x-notata

It is with great sadness that I must announce that I will be leaving Sussex Wildlife Trust by the middle of the month. I am going to become a full-time freelancer which will hopefully also free up more time for other natural history activities, such as becoming more involved with the BAS in Sussex. It's been a fantastic 12 years, I will still be very much involved with the 32 reserves, continuing to do a great deal of recording. Such as yesterday's spontaneous survey...

Shaun Pryor and I headed to Woods Mill, our target; to look for two common linys that I have frequently recorded at Woods Mill but I have not seen this year. Centromerita bicolor and Bathyphantes nigrinus. We saw neither. We did however see a whole load of really good stuff. Here is the full list with those in bold being new to Woods Mill. Some of these species are well known from the site (Such as Drassyllus lutetianus and Ero apahana) so I am making an informed ID on a few immatures here.

We recorded at least 10 new site records and almost as many new 10 km square records. Four of these new species had conservation status, a really significant result to add to our understanding of the site. One of the last things I will do next week is write the biological information for the next Woods Mill plan and these findings will get a mention. So even after I have gone, expect me to keep adding to the understanding of these fantastic reserves in such a way.

The highlight was totally unexpected. A female Monocephalus castaneipes from Hoe Woods. This is the first time I have seen this species, my 50th new spider in 2019 and my 347th spider of 2019.

Almost as unexpected was the species at the top of the page. Panamomops sulcifrons. I have picked this up twice before, both times from chalk quarries. This time it was sieved from litter along the river at Woods Mill. The male is less than 1.5 mm long (smaller than 97% of our spiders) and it's really funny looking.

In the Box hedge right outside my office window, Ballus chalybeius new to the site.

Also there is a colony of Ero aphana which I already knew about.

In the same hedge, some tiny Theridiosoma gemmsosum. Who knew?!

And the first Walckenaeria cuspidata in West Sussex since 1964. That's the one in the middle with unicornis on the left and a female acuminata on the right.

In the valley field, lots of Thanatus striatus.

And a female Palliduphantes pallidus.

And perhaps most surprising, an adult male Pardosa amentata. I haven't seen an adult Pardosa for months so this was quite a surprise.

So Friday the 13th is my last day at the Trust, and hopefully we will wake up to a fantastic red sunrise that day too. We have one month left on the spider challenge. I've closed the gap a little, Matt's now 15 species ahead. Next weekend I am off to the south west for a long weekend of spidering so it's all to play for.

I had a great day today handing over the Butcherlands bird survey to Glenn where we saw three Hawfinches, Peregrine and Red Kite. Then we went on to Burton where we had a look at the work being done there to open up Black Hole. It's looking really good but I didn't want to miss an opportunity to work some of the tussocks in the bog. I apologise in advance for rubbish photos in the white tray but it's a very wet site and wet day, so nice photos were not really achievable.

We recorded 27 species of spider, 16 of which were new to the site. Including Nesticus cellulanus, a spider that I was worried I might not pick up this year. Also new for the year were a couple of other 'bogey spiders' I had not seen until now but really should have. Macrargus rufus and FINALLY Robertus lividus. That puts me on 343 species for the year, just passing over the 50% mark. Now I know I am a few months behind Matt Prince on this but I am very pleased to get to this point.

New to the site today was the creepy Taranuncus setosus. A Nationally Scarce spider I have only ever found in Greater Tussock-sedge or Purple Moor-grass tussocks. It is really rather sinister looking, a big dark leggy liny with 'something of the night' about it. Here is a female on the left. To the right is the disappointing Walckenaeria nudipalpis which lacks a fancy head in the male.

Then Glenn swept the first Hieroglyphic Ladybird I have ever seen in Sussex and the first on a Trust reserve since 1993 (which was actually Graffham Common). This was from an area of rush growing over Sphagnum, a long way from any heathers. Why are these so hard to find? I have now seen them three times, all this year in Surrey, Hampshire and Sussex.

I had a great day at Graffham Common today looking for spiders but the highlight for me was stumbling upon these Drumstick Truffleclubs while I was trying to find somewhere to have my lunch, a new site record. I have wanted to see these for some time, chiefly because of the ridiculous name. They grow out of another fungi, known as False Truffle that we found there some five years ago when they cleared the pines, they were brought to the surface and looked very stone like until you get close. I always assumed that these False Truffles were still there beneath the surface and clearly they are. 

The spiders were pretty amazing today. A total of 43 species in all with five new species for the reserve (amazing for 17th November) but I am going to write a longer piece on the invertebrates of Graffham Common when I can do it justice. It's an incredible site!

Last weekend I was lucky enough to spend some time in the field with other arachnologists. The shadow in the above photo is Richard Gallon, with Ray Gabriel central and me on the right. We were looking for the enigmatic and extremely rare Thanatus formicinus. A big and impressive spider last seen in Sussex in 1969. There is about as much chance of finding Winnie the Pooh, also from the Ashdown Forest. Yet it did just turn unexpectedly up at Clumber in Nottinghamshire, where I assume it has remained undetected for decades.

We didn't find it. Possibly due to a thick layer of Scotch Mist.

However, we did have an awesome day and recorded something in the region of 45 species of spider. Armed with a trio of suction samplers, we looked like a cross between the Ghostbusters and Last of the Summer Wine. Richard had his petrol driven beast and Ray and I had an electric one a piece. First sample and Richard got a lifer for him and a new one for the year for me. A big female Agroeca brunnea. Only the second time I have seen it and the first female.

I didn't take many more photos on the day, except this Himacerus boops recorded at Duddleswell. It seems to be a genuinely scarce species in Sussex. I do a lot of sampling on heathland and this is the first Sussex record since 2011!

Now back to the spiders. I was able to tease out just what I wrote down from my sampler in the field and make a comparison between a single petrol suction sampler and an electric one. 

This has proved a really interesting exercise. It was fairly standardised, we did about as many samples as each other. Mine certainly took longer to collect and a shorter time to process but I think this is a fairly standardised comparison without getting really science about it. Clearly the petrol gets more but they do get slightly different things when using them together. In this case, it would seem the electric sampler slightly inflates the metric of 'proportion of species with conservation status' that is a valuable tool for assessing a site's quality through its invertebrate assemblage.

EDIT: Totally forgot to say that Sintula corniger is new to East Sussex!

It was such a great day, so good to spend time with other arachnologists, something I rarely do being almost entirely self-taught. A big thanks to Richard and Ray and thank to Richard for the cake and coffee. I have been driving by Duddleswell Tea Rooms for 12 years! I was a bit gutted I didn't take more photos, so on Tuesday I went back up to the forest and did two hours sucking with one electric battery at Old Lodge and got a few goodies. First up I took some photos of species from above.

Here is the tiny Centromerus dilutus which is super common. This is on full zoom. This spider has a maximum length of 1.5 mm when adult! I never take the time to take photos of linys, this was quite a fun exercise but the photos are all poor, the light was awful too.

An adult male Walckneaeria antica.

And also very common, Centromeritus conccinus.

Evarcha arcuata and Cercidia prominens, both adult males at Old Lodge in November. There do not appear to be any records for either in November. It just goes to show it's worth getting out there even on these cold November days.

I did get a few species we didn't find on Saturday. These were.

Ozyptila atomaria

Micrommata virescens

Crustulina guttata

Meioneta mollis (new to site and Nationally Rare)

Tapinopa longidens (first Sussex record since 1968!)

Hahnia helveola (new site record and a lifer)

The last two of these species being new for the year putting me on 336. only 19 behind Matt! Here is a young Micrommata virescens.

Not to be mistaken for a young Tibellus. 

To the naked eye, these and young Thanatus striatus all look quite similar but Micrommata have what I can only describe as 'feet'. Like in this shot. Showing that they are related to huntsman.

And finally the adult male Hahnia helveola, which happens to be the 48th new spider I have had this year and my 7500th species in all. Now I wrote this pretty quickly in just over an hour as I am now going to go to, you've guessed it, Ashdown Forest. It saves me driving to the north of England to look for linys, while still getting good records for Sussex.