The Wasp Spider

Walking around Bovey Heath we spot a Wasp Spider. It’s a fantastic specimen. Just look at it:

I manage to get between its web and the foliage with my thin phone and get a shot.

I’ve seen one before, in Italy:

Wasp Spider on the plane and on the plain

They’ve only been in the UK since 1922.

I’m just as excited seeing one this time as I was last.

Then we spot the egg sac in the gorse bush at the edge of the web:

It’s a stunning woven flask, much bigger than she is, held in a tangle of threads.

What an incredible structure to weave. I hope there will be many more Wasp Spiders here next year.

Here’s illustrator Jo Brown behind the spider:

Maybe it’ll end up in volume 2 of her nature journal, Secrets of a Devon Wood?

The Hall of Einar Sunday Recommendation #21