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Pick 'n' Mix
Posted by Graeme Lyons , Monday, 11 June 2012 21:48
I went a walk around Old Lodge on Sunday to see if I could spot a Micrommata virescens after I had had a text from Susy Jones saying she had spotted a huge green spider in Ashdown Forest. I failed to see one but I did pick up a couple of smart looking female orb weavers that I knew to be in the genus Hypsosinga. Knowing there were two species I thought I should check a couple and surprisingly I had actually picked up both species. I think their abdomens look just like boiled sweets. In the above photo the top species is the commoner of the two being Hypsosinga pygmaea, the bottom the nationally scarce (Nb) Hypsosinga sanguinea. Both new species for me leaving me on 4020. In the same net, I also swept Heather Ladybird which was also a new species for me.
Here are the epigynes of the two species, easy to separate in these two. Here is H. pygmaea.
And H. sanguinea.
Posted in
just a general comment, not aimed at this particular entry. I love the blog and I have read it every day since I discovered it.
I know some of the places mentioned as my mother lives in Seaford.
I am now putting together my own pan-species list (my particular interests are birds and vascular plants) but it will be way short of 1000 species.I have an interest in all wildlife, but without attempting necessarily to identify and study it.
Anyway, thanks again for the interesting and entertaining blog. Long may the puns continue!
Michael Rowland.