Wednesday 13 September 2017

Bathroom drama

These eggs were laid a few days ago, I think the spider is Tegenaria domestica (a small Teg)?? The spider has been identified for me as Zygiella x-notata (the English name is odd, Missing Sector Orb-web spider). The female hung around the eggs for a day or so and then disappeared up the wall and away. This evening I noticed something was taking an interest in the eggs. It looked to me as if the ovipositor was probing the nest. If I'm correct this is an interesting relationship, the adult would find the wasp a prey sized item, however, the parasite may well be gaining the upper hand! I'm hoping that identifying the spider correctly might lead to identifying the wasp? Any ideas on the spider ID very welcome - thanks to LJ for ID.





2 comments:

Simon Douglas Thompson said...

Lovely little shots there, I bet loads of folk would mis-ID that for a False Widow!

Alastair said...

Well, I mid-identified it to start with Simon, local spider person put me right.