Surface Tension

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!