Fascinating looking creatures those wasp spiders - to look at them you'd think they be more at home in a tropical jungle. I'd really like to see one in the wild.
Wasp Spider - dont look if you dont like big, brightly coloured spiders
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It would be very interesting if you had. However, a word of caution. A few years ago the Essex Spider Recording Group put out a well-publicised poster asking if anyone had seen the wasp spider, as they wanted to map its distribution within Essex. They included a good clear photograph of the wasp spider, and a clear picture of the common garden spider, which it is most easily confused with by a lay-person. Now to me, they look nothing like each other at all, but apparently the survey was flooded with records of wasp spiders. The Essex recorder told me that every single wasp spider record that he followed up from that survey turned out to be common garden spider, not wasp spider.
In other words, people who don't know spiders tend to get them wrong. You would need a photograph or a specimen before anyone believed your record.
I hope you are right though, as it would only be the third Welsh record ever.
You got them ones like this too that do look like them. Not my picture but from google.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/92/223660713_a4ccae17d1.jpg
i found one of these in my garden this summer, i live on the coast in the south east and have an area of grass i leave longer for the wildlife and it was hiding in there, first time i've seen one. it was actually quite aggressive towards me raising its legs up at me in an irritated way, needless to say i didnt pick it up!
It would be very interesting if you had. However, a word of caution. A few years ago the Essex Spider Recording Group put out a well-publicised poster asking if anyone had seen the wasp spider, as they wanted to map its distribution within Essex. They included a good clear photograph of the wasp spider, and a clear picture of the common garden spider, which it is most easily confused with by a lay-person. Now to me, they look nothing like each other at all, but apparently the survey was flooded with records of wasp spiders. The Essex recorder told me that every single wasp spider record that he followed up from that survey turned out to be common garden spider, not wasp spider.
In other words, people who don't know spiders tend to get them wrong. You would need a photograph or a specimen before anyone believed your record.
I hope you are right though, as it would only be the third Welsh record ever.
I dont know how anyone could get the garden spider mixed up with a wasp spider, in the flesh they really do look completely different, apart from the average size and shape, the wasp spider is a bit bigger though id say.
I agree, but that's what happened. I suspect that most of the incorrect identifications were people doing what Greg said above: thinking "Oh, I'm sure I've seen one of those in my garden" (or wherever), and misremembering the appearance of what they had seen.
Which is not to say that Greg didn't see one. Just that experience tells me to doubt unless it can be confirmed.
Which is not to say that Greg didn't see one. Just that experience tells me to doubt unless it can be confirmed.
yea i think your right, i imagine they cant be that common yet or we would all be spotting them on a regular basis
