Boxer

Philodromas dispar

Last month, I finally caught up with a spider that Mike first spotted in the garden a couple of years ago. The male Philodromas dispar is pretty distinctive: dark brownish-black with a white line running the length of its body on both sides, and yellowish legs. And how could you miss his big pedipalps, which look like a pair of boxing gloves held out in front of his face? These contain organs which allow the spider to "taste" and "smell", and the male also uses them for his courtship displays and to transfer sperm packets to the female. It's much harder to distinguish the female from several similar species. In fact, the books say you need a microscopic look at their sex organs to identify them, so I'm glad I found a male! He was scurrying along the edge of one of the flower beds, investigating the upper and undersides of leaves, weaving his way around stems and along vines, moving fast as he searched for prey. The species belongs to the family of "running crab spiders" – a group distinguished by their flattened shape and their particularly long second pair of legs. These spiders don't make webs, instead ambushing their prey. With a body that measures about 5 mm long (roughly 1/4-inch), it is said to be an "agile hunter" that tackles mostly flies and other smaller insects. It is found in various woody habitats, often near (and sometimes in) houses. It particularly likes the lower branches of trees and shrubs. The female uses silk to attach her eggs to a leaf, and guards them until the autumn, when the spiderlings hatch. They overwinter either in leaf litter (according to the UK Spider and Harvestman Recording Scheme's website) or under bark (according to the Nature Spot website), emerging again in the spring. The species is common in southern England and Wales, as well as southern and western Europe. No doubt, we'll be seeing them again.

Bristly Oxtongue

Bristly Oxtongue (Helminthotheca echioides)

In a few of the rougher corners of the garden, Bristly Oxtongue (Helminthotheca echioides) plants have begun to open their yellow flowers to the sun. While these look very like the flowers of a dandelion, the plants themselves look totally different. For one thing, they're quite tall (stretching up to almost a metre/yard high) and roundly bushy, with multiple stems and dozens of flowerheads per plant. For another, they're incredibly bristly, as you can see in the picture above. Stiff bristles march up all sides of the plant's stems. The leaves are covered with whitish, blister-like bumps, with bristles arising from each bump. The phyllaries – the bracts which surround the flowerhead, holding it together as it develops and supporting it once it's open – are also bristly. And very large. Those large, bristly phyllaries make the Bristly Oxtongue easy to distinguish from other superficially similar plants. Like all Asteraceae (members of the daisy family), its "flower" is actually a flowerhead made up of dozens of tiny flowers. These bloom from June through November across lowland England, particularly near the coast. Native to the western Mediterranean, the plant was introduced to the UK many centuries ago, and has also spread (generally by accident) throughout much of the rest of the world as well. It likes rough grassy areas, field edges, streamsides and "waste places"; I'm not sure what that latter says about our garden!

Outdoor carpet

Common Carpet (Epirrhoe alternata)

For those who think that all moths are boring little brown jobs, I present proof that this is not always the case. This Common Carpet (Epirrhoe alternata) flashed up in front of me the other day as I walked the garden paths, and eventually settled back into the grass where I could photograph it. Yes, it's brown – and black and cream and grey and rust – but how about that patterning?! Gorgeous. And very good at breaking up the outline of the moth. This is a common and widespread insect across the whole of the UK, even in many of the offshore islands. It's found in a remarkable range of habitats: woodland, moorland, some grasslands, heath, fens and marshes as well as urban areas and gardens. Those of us in the south see them from May through Octocober (as many as three separate generations!) while those in the far north of Scotland typically only get them in June and July. The one broad dark band across the midwing (often with a grey component), the single sizable "point" at the back edge of that band and the thin grey line that runs through the white stripe just beyond that point all help to separate this species from a few supeficially similar ones. As with all UK moths, the adults are nectar feeders. They visit flowers primarily at night, though they often begin feeding at dusk. Common Ragwort is a favourite, and we have plenty of that, so our visitor should be happy here. The larvae feed on various species of bedstraw, including Common Cleavers – another thing we have plenty of – so any potential offspring should be provided for as well.

Waspish

Wasp Beetle (Clytus arietis)

While wandering out to the pond the other afternoon, I spotted this waspy looking insect on one of the old clothesline poles. That yellow and black pattern is certainly eye-catching! Once I'd snapped its picture, a check of the books quickly led to an ID. It's a Wasp Beetle (Clytus arietis), a common and widespread species in gardens and hedgerows across England and Wales (but rarer in Scotland) and a new one for the list. It's not just its striking pattern that makes this trickster look like a wasp; it also moves like one, waggling its long antennae and scuttling around on twitchy legs in the same jerky fashion that wasps do. That's enough to convince most potential predators to avoid it. In reality, however, this 1.6 cm-long beetle (just over a half inch) is totally harmless. It's one of the so-called "longhorn beetles". Like most other longhorns, its larvae develop in dead wood, including such things as fence posts and old gates. Adults feed on pollen, so this one was presumably finding plenty to eat at the flowers in our garden. They fly from May through July, so perhaps we'll see another one or two before they disappear for the season.