Insects and Spiders

So you did, I missed that. Awesome aren't they

The caterpillar is a mullein moth. Except, it's not on a mullein leaf here....

Bit late to this. As an adult back in Oxford, the 2010s were noticeable for the sudden appearance of false widows (Steatoda) - both in the garden, and the allotment - sheds, and fences. Both nobilis and grossa. They often looked pretty scary!

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Removed one from its preferred home on the ceiling right above my pillow this afternoon

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Yeah they’re pretty striking. And It fooled me enough to scoop my youngest up as she toddled towards it :-)

very good, thanks for linking

This is a fritillary of some kind, but they're really hard to tell apart: https://northwestbutterflies.blogspot.com/2016/09/lesser-but-not-least-fritillaries.html

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Hard to be absolutely certain without seeing the underside, but I would bet on it being a Dark Green Fritillary.

Lovely picture!

moth

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this i reckon

https://ukmoths.org.uk/species/phlogophora-meticulosa/adult/

Wasp nests are amazing structures, slightly less amazing when the exact position is located at the cost of five stings....

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sad about the spelling change though :(

The ups and downs of being a bee

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I’ve had to pap what I presume is a giant house spider out (as gently as possible and only into the close, not right outside) almost every night for about a fortnight.

I think there’s (at least) two of them, with slight differences in size and colour but I’ve not seen them together or even both on the same night. I also wonder if it’s actually a different one every night but then my arachnophobia kicks in and I start to worry that under our floorboards our behind the skirting boards is just solid with huge spiders!

If they are getting back in then I’ve no idea how. Mostly they’re in the living room which is quite far from the door and there doesn’t seem to be any real gaps around the door anyway.

The ones I’ve put out have been around 8cm but I’ve just read that 12cm isn’t too uncommon. If they start getting that big I think I’ll be signing the deeds to the flat over to them and moving into the garage!

Wow. I've never seen a spider that large. (There are no huge spiders in Germany, and I've never seen one here.)

It's behind you......

It was behind me last night. The way I sit on the sofa has my head a few inches from the wall and it came along the wall into my peripheral vision and shit me right up.

Wife had to get me up during the night to eject a smaller one from the bathroom. It’ll no doubt be back in before we know it and growing as big as the other ones.

Dealing with them so regularly is helping my fear of them I think though. Infact there’s been a couple times I’ve just ushered them into the spare room instead of putting them out in the close.

I think this year has been a good one for bugs in general.

Now the colder nights are setting in they probably looking for warmth.

I was lying On my side in bed, reading once. I saw something in my lower Peripheral vision - looked down and there was a fuck off great spider just sat on the bed right next to me, presumably waiting for me to turn the page so it could find out what happened next.

We had a pretty large Cardinal spider walk across the living room floor a few weeks ago. It wasn't quite as large as they can get but this one was easily 9 or 10cm across. We were having re-wiring work done at the time so it had probably been disturbed. Apparently they can be up to 8 years old when they are that size.

The only reason I didn't take a photo is because it shat me right up and I was so on edge that there was no way I could take a photo of it instead of getting it out of the house as soon as possible (in a glass). I don't consider myself to be scared of spiders but it appears that I am :D

EDIT: Probably a little bit smaller than this lady but very similar size to this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tegenaria_parietina#/media/File:CAPOAT9F.jpg

You are Miss Moffett AICMFP.

To be fair, the curds and whey were fucking delicious

Starting to think these critters are colorblind.

Mahossive Harvestman doing a shit job of hiding on the magnolia brick work...

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I am still some way off finding this sort of animal acceptable in my kitchen. Sorry about that. But I left it alone.

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