By Graeme Lyons

Senior Ecologist

Hope you don't mind massive hairy spiders! This is our biggest (joint with the raft spider) but this one is rare to boot. Today at a Sussex Wildlife Trust event hosted at Court Lodge Farm, I provided some pond dipping entertainment and was overjoyed to find this fen raft spider in the first dip! Especially as three years ago I did a survey there and didn't find this species. This is the first confirmed record for the site that was pasture only ten years ago.

I literally lay in the water to get these shots and this video of it cleaning itself. Enjoy!