Friday 24 September 2010

Labyrinth Spider - Agelena labyrinthica

    Family - Agelenidae
    Genus - Agelena 
    Single UK species
    Large sheetwebs with a tubular retreat.
    Found at ground level and on bushes.
    Brighton Extra Mural Cemetery
    09.07.2011
    Brighton Extra Mural Cemetery
    28.07.2011
    I Found this gravid female living on the ceiling of a Bird Hide at 
    Pulborough Brooks RSPB Nature Reserve.
    I managed to coax her out of her topside base.
    The ceiling was alive with harvestmen, lots of long legs in her web
    as well as Crane Fly wings and the remains of a large Moth. 
    Pulborough Brooks RSPB Nature Reserve
    11.07.2011

    Feasting on a Squash Bug
    Living in a Flint wall
    Stanmer
    14.07.2011
 
    Photograph by Ann Hunt
    Near Singleton, West Sussex
    31.07.2011

    Lullington Heath, East Sussex
    09/06/2010
   
    The Heath is covered in tiny Grasshoppers which the
    Labyrinth Spiders feast on. 
    King's Standing
    Ashdown Forest
    21.05.2011
    Living comunally in the same web.
    The larger one is definately a Male, with a smaller one in the same web,
    I've not seen this before. I was focussing on the smaller (out of focus)
    Spider, when the larger one appeared behind.
    He came out still carrying his lunch!
    "The Agelena with swollen palps is probably a subadult male
    where the palps have not yet developed the complex structure
    seen in adults. At this time of year it is usual for there to be large variation in
    the stage at which individuals have reached, according to how
    successful they have been in finding prey etc." Peter Harvey BAS
    Lullington Heath
    Nr. Jevington
    East Sussex
    01.06.2011
    Old Lodge Nature Reserve
    Ashdown Forest, East Sussex
    30.06.2011
 
    Californian Labyrinth Spiders
    Photos by Ceridwen Falk
    2011

    Many thanks to Alice Hopkins who very kindly sent me these Photographs
    of a Labyrinth Spider she found along a Coastal path at Tintagel, Cornwall
    2011

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for posting these beautiful pictures! I just found a mature male examining the "web" on my loom, figured out he was of the Agelenidae family, but Tegenaria atrica or Agelena labyrinthica? Great to have the answer!

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