Helen Smith
@waveneycott.bsky.social
π€ 80
π₯ 57
π 27
'Spiders the size of rats', fens and other curious and lovely things.
More tiny finds from
@suffolkwildlife.bsky.social
Redgrave & Lopham Fen: Five-striped Spider Thantaus striatus recorded here for the first time since 1957 and the Nationally Rare and Endangered Jumping spider Attulus [Calositticus] caricis. Photos: Anna Maka.
@britishspiders.bsky.social
2 months ago
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Wil J. Heeney
2 months ago
Not even half 9 and I've mapped about 30 clusters of webs, each with at least 4 webs in each cluster. It's going to be a slow day at this rate
@britishspiders.bsky.social
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A real glitter ball of a spider
@suffolkwildlife.bsky.social
Redgrave & Lopham Fen today - maxing at just 3mm long, the minute Ray Spider Theridiosoma gemmosum has silvery plates of guanine shining through its cuticle. Photos Anna Maka.
@britishspiders.bsky.social
2 months ago
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Trickster - sub-adult Wasp Spider Argiope bruennichi
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2 months ago
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A great team out today
@suffolkwildlife.bsky.social
Carlton Marshes, surveying the still expanding range of the Fen Raft Spider population established there in 2011/12 - and meeting a few other fun species too!
@britishspiders.bsky.social
2 months ago
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πππ€ ππ‘π«π’π¬ππ’π§π π€ππ
4 months ago
Please share this like lives hang in the balance because they do.
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It's the egg-laying season
@suffolkwildlife.bsky.social
Redgrave & Lopham Fen - three female Fen Raft Spiders Dolomedes plantarius holding their precious egg sacs... and a male hanging around waiting for new opportunities.
@britishspiders.bsky.social
4 months ago
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Synema globosum, AKA Napoleon's Hat Spider. A rare import to GB but on the list of potential future colonists, showing its 'muscle' at the wonderful Perchtoldsdorfer Heide reserve, on the outskirts of Vienna.
@britishspiders.bsky.social
4 months ago
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An unexpected and familiar friend among the many treasures
@worldwildlife.org
Marchegg on the R. March/Morava. Thanks to
@jubalbarca.bsky.social
for inheriting the spider-spotting eyes!
4 months ago
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A new species for the greenhouse (and wider patch), Zilla diodia hanging out at the hub of in her fine orbweb and continuing the species' rapid expansion in East Anglia
@norfolknats.bsky.social
@britishspiders.bsky.social
4 months ago
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Helen Smith
Meghan Bartels
6 months ago
"On Wednesday, just days before her wedding, 25-year-old Hassouna was killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit her home in northern Gaza. Ten members of her family, including her pregnant sister, were also killed."
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
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βIf I die, I want a loud deathβ: Gaza photojournalist killed by Israeli airstrike
Fatima Hassouna, who had been documenting war in Gaza for 18 months and was subject of new documentary, killed along with 10 members of her family
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/18/gaza-photojournalist-killed-by-israeli-airstrike-fatima-hassouna?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
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Aurora
6 months ago
Please share. Data must be preserved.
add a skeleton here at some point
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Helen Smith
6 months ago
"However, there is a nervousness around how these reviews will be implemented and that βstreamlingβ regulations becomes code for dumping environmental protections."
inews.co.uk/news/inside-...
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Inside Defra cuts, as 600 jobs face axe and nature sites 'left unchecked for a decade'
Environmental groups say Defra is already struggling to fulfil its legal duties
https://inews.co.uk/news/inside-defra-cuts-as-600-jobs-face-axe-and-nature-sites-left-unchecked-for-a-decade-3632820
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Helen Smith
Nic Wilson
6 months ago
Planning to buy plants over
#Easter
? Check out the
#PeatFree
Nurseries List for over 140
#UK
growers who don't destroy precious carbon-capturing
#peatland
habitat by using
#peat
to grow their plants. Pls let me know if your favourite
#nursery
isn't listed. Pls repost & let your friends know. Ta ππ±π
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Peat Free Nurseries List
The response to the Peat Free Nurseries List has been incredible. Itβs fantastic to see such interest in sourcing peat-free plants. Thousands of people have accessed the list which now includβ¦
https://nicwilson.co.uk/2020/04/30/updated-peat-free-nurseries-list/
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The best of 'lawn' grasses, Good Friday Grass (AKA Field Wood-rush Luzula campestris), is right on queue this year.
#wildflowerhour
6 months ago
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Lyme Disease UK
7 months ago
π· Itβs Tick Bite Prevention Week! π· β οΈ Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne illness in the northern hemisphere. Help us spread awareness! π Download your social media pack with graphics and images to share:
lymediseaseuk.com/2024/02/20/g...
#BeTickAware
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A very dapper Pirata piscatorius Fishing Otter Spider soaking up the sun while escaping sensory overload from the nagging easterly wind
@suffolkwildlife.bsky.social
's Redgrave & Lopham Fen today.
@britishspiders.bsky.social
#spiders
#arachnids
6 months ago
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Not that I have any bias but, please
#spider
friends, vote now for this awesome and globally threatened animal to be Invertebrate of the Year 2025 - visit
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Anyone can vote, with the poll closing at midday on Friday (4th)
#arachnids
#arachnology
add a skeleton here at some point
6 months ago
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Brian Eversham
9 months ago
Very sad news. Among my favourite poets, and no-one wrote more clearly about The Burren: At Poll Salach While I was looking for Easter snow on the hills You showed me, like a concentration of violets Or a fragment from some future unimagined sky, A single spring gentian shivering at our feet.
add a skeleton here at some point
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Helen Smith
Nature
9 months ago
A detailed extinction risk assessment of freshwater fauna, covering more than 23,000 species, reveals that around 24% of the studied species are threatened with extinction. The analysis identifies major threats from pollution, dams, agriculture and invasive species.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
π§ͺ
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One-quarter of freshwater fauna threatened with extinction - Nature
A global multi-taxon extinction risk assessment of freshwater fauna for The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species finds one-quarter of species to be at high risk of extinction.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08375-z
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Dr. Catherine Scott
9 months ago
Exciting
#Arachnology
news! It's been clear for some time that spiders have 'noses' on their legs but we didn't really understand how they smell airborne sex pheromones. Now we do! Gabriele Uhl & colleagues have identified the sensilla responsible: π·οΈπ§ͺ
www.uni-greifswald.de/en/universit...
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βOlfaction with legs β spiders use wall-pore sensilla for pheromone detection"
Spiders can smell: they use pore-covered sensilla that are similar to hairs to detect volatile substances. This is the key finding of a study that has been published in the January 2025 issue of the s...
https://www.uni-greifswald.de/en/university/information/current-news/details/n/olfaction-with-legs-spiders-use-wall-pore-sensilla-for-pheromone-detection-230249/
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John Walters
11 months ago
Two rare arachnids Hedgehog Harvestman Nemastomella bacilliferum and the Plymouth endemic Horrid Ground Weaver spider Nothophantes horridus, Plymouth, Devon today
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Vanna Bartlett
11 months ago
A bit of
#Harvestman
action today - Dicranopalpus larvatus in their only known Norfolk location, Earlham Cemetery in Norwich. Still immature at this time of year but some are now discernable as male (first 2 photos) and female (3rd photo).
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Tylan Berry
11 months ago
Clear skies and all that, let's start here as we mean to go on. Meet Pseudomaro aenigmaticus, a rather rare 1.5mm, subterranean money spider. Not seen in the UK since 1994. Very unexpected at saltmarsh on the Tamar recently.
@britishspiders.bsky.social
@graemelyons.bsky.social
@cofnod.bsky.social
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Jillian Kurovski μμ ν
11 months ago
My first time being part of a published article! Everything about Dolomedes in one place. I wrote the section on parental care. π·οΈ I am very grateful to all of the collaborators on this paper especially Dr. Chrissie Painting and my advisor Eileen.
www.frontiersin.org/journals/ara...
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Frontiers | Dolomedes fishing spider biology: gaps and opportunities for future research
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/arachnid-science/articles/10.3389/frchs.2024.1501653/full
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