Aellurilus v-insignitus at Pettycur

I was alerted to the presence of a particularly rare spider in Scotland which is more -or-less on my doorstop, and only there. I made the pilgrimage a few miles east, fully thinking that I would spend an hour staring at rocks with no luck. However, it wasn't to be and I was able to quite easily locate a few specimens (1m 2ff) of said spider. A later search by someone more conscientious turned up a good many more.

I was lucky enough to get one in the binoculars just as it began to display to a female, waving its palps in the air like a Mexican wave before shaking up and down at the "knees". I guess that process was successful as they ran off up the hill together. Or maybe that's what failure looks like. I tried to make a video, but because the sun was on the screen all I managed was a video of a nearby stone.

Arachnophilia

 A couple of early year sessions at Cullaloe spent mostly tussocking and sieving leaf litter was bound to throw up a good variety of invertebrate specimens, but grabbing the limelight quickly have been the arachnids. Numerically it was always going to be the beetles, both in number and variety, and that's held true. However spiders, harvestmen and pseudoscorpions were quick in on the act (and mites, to be fair, but I can't do nowt with 'em). This shelf has been getting a bit of action (might resemble a different view of another blog not so far away).

A special find today was this female Drassodes cuprea, not new to reserve but new to me, which has a bonus guest. With a bit of luck, the guest may also be identified. Well, maybe a lot of luck, though I have a nice paper on wasps and their spider hosts that might help.

This is what "leisure time" means for me in January!

dry-ish leaf pile in the corner of the hide

Deschampsia tussock in the woods - one of 1000s

I had originally hoped I would have ten spider species by end of January, but it's probably reasonable to expect over 20. I haven't even rooted around for a grass pile yet or dropped a single pitfall trap.

2021 arachnid list at 3/1

Cullaloe Hills - Cyclosa conica

While wandering the Cullaloe hills in search of green mushrooms I swept a nice spider oddity from the edge of the woods - Cyclosa conica. Not particularly hard to recognise, this one, and a nice unexpected new species for me, though Britain's Spiders shows it's expected at least in the south of Fife.