Flashback to the Last Insects of the Season

 While waiting for the ground to awaken once again, with snowdrops expected in about, gosh, maybe three weeks, lets look back to the mild spell before the snow and bitter cold, and look at the last pollinator I found on the last blooms of campus. 

Also, let me introduce you to the beautiful markings of a noble false widow spider. I remember that a few years ago, the sighting of one of these faintly venomous spiders would cause entire schools to close so that anything with eight legs could be vapourised, now they are a common sigh everywhere round here. 

Hopefully you are still finding interesting things to look at where you are. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 28.11.24

A Noble Guest

 So I've long had suspicions about a couple of 8 legged guests I've seen around my flat, but it was only the other day that it suddenly occurred to me that I could google lens them to find out if I was right.

So I photographed the chap who has taken up residence in my bathroom, and quickly confirmed that my hypothesis was indeed correct.

Steodata Nobilis, the noble false widow spider. 

I'm sure that once upon a time, I would have gone half mad with panic and instituted a campaign of "KILL IT WITH FIRE", for after all, maybe as recently as ten years ago, these spiders were seen as a terrifying plague brought to our shores by climate change. Schools were closed down. People sprayed their garden sheds with agent orange and anything small with 8 legs met a sticky end under size ten Doc Martens. 

Nowadays, I'm like - "gosh, that's interesting, he's doing no harm, I'll let him be." 

A state of affairs that will probably last only as long as it doesn't land on my nose on a gossamer thread while I'm brushing my teeth. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 01.03.23