The Wasp Spider

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

Wasp Spider - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

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:

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:

Wasp Spider - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

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

Wasp Spider - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

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:

Wasp Spider - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

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

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