A raft of spiders

Wem Moss, Wednesday 25th September 2019

Our final outing of this year's programme was to the Shropshire Wildlife Trust Reserve at Wem Moss. 

On their website it states that the moss is "as ancient a piece of wilderness as you will find in Shropshire, a miraculous relic circled with trees beyond which the modern world gets on with intensive agricultural production. Wem Moss is an outstanding example of a lowland raised bog, a wildlife habitat that exists in Britain today in just tiny remnant fragments. Ninety-four per cent of its former range has been destroyed or degraded by drainage, intensive peat cutting, grazing, forestry and pollution, leaving just 503 hectares of unspoilt raised bog in England."

But before you can visit the moss you have to get to it. There is no handy car park on site, instead we had to park on the roadside by the entrance to a track that goes by the moss and walk to the site.

The half mile or so walk provided a surprise … sunflowers.

Photograph: David Williams

Two fields, one on each side of the track, boasting sunflowers and other "wild flowers" such as flax.

What was the purpose of these crops? We had no idea.

An Eristalis hoverfly was seen feeding on one of the sunflower heads.

 These fields were a distraction as was the large margin around the fields but we tore ourselves away and progressed steadily along to the footbridge off the track that provides access to the moss.

Once over the bridge we passed through a section of woodland.

We did not need to worry about trying to find the footpath it was clearly marked by the tracks of a heavy caterpillared vehicle.

In fact we were able to follow the vehicle's wide track for the rest of the day as we went about our searching, greatly easing our passage around the moss.

In the woodland we found a cranefly losing a fight for its life to a spider. The cranefly is probably Tipula paludosa, I am not sure of the spider species.

Photograph: David Williams

Within the wood there was hollow trunk of a dead tree that had fallen on its side. This was covered in moss and lichen including a Cladonia.

But within the shell of the trunk we found what can only be described as "yellow stuff".

Photograph: David Williams

Nearby a large hoverfly, Sericomyia silentis, paused long enough to be photographed.

Photograph: David Williams

A cry went up.

"Raft spider"

Just past the woodland as the path opened out onto the moss proper one of the group had found that iconic species of the site and the nearby Fenn's, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses, the raft spider Dolomedes fimbriatus.

Photograph: David Williams

Well, it is probably Dolomedes fimbriatus. There is another species of spider Dolomedes plantarius which looks the same but this is typically found in fenland.

And to reassure avid readers of the Shropshire Wildlife Trust's website who describe the spider (to get you interested, I assume) as "a six-inch monster" it is neither six-inches nor a monster.

We found three very quickly in the same area. They were all just passing the time of day "lazing" about on leaves. None were waiting to pounce on unsuspecting human passers-by.

Time, as always, had marched on. It was lunchtime and we had only just got to the actual moss.

But lunchtime is lunchtime so we found a spot to sit down and ate our provisions.

Refreshed we made our way out onto the moss following one of the tracks left by the giant caterpillar.

We met a couple of Wildlife Trust volunteers who were monitoring the water levels. We were interested in what they were doing and they were interested in our activities so pleasantries were exchanged.

They informed us that the moss had been drying out as it was surrounded by drainage ditches that were doing their job rather too well and removing its water. As part of a recovery programme, according to my memory and understanding of the conversation, the moss has been protected from this draining by putting in a barrier that prevents leakage to the drains. This has been followed up by removing some of the vegetation to enable wet areas such as the ones below to develop as the water levels rise.

This work continues. Three large caterpillared vehicles were hard at work creating these wet areas. Here is one of them.

Back to the animals.

We rarely venture into the water but today we did and amongst the creatures we found were a number of water beetles and bugs, which we could not identify and a dragonfly larva, one of the chasers.

Photograph: David Williams

Mention of water brings me to the next subject which was another raft spider but this time it was on the surface of the water clearly demonstrating the strength of the surface tension.

Photograph: David Williams

And talk of spiders takes us to this:

Photograph: David Williams

An intensely coloured Araneus quadratus.

Beating the heather revealed a couple of larvae. The first as yet has not been identified:

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And a moth, a Beautiful Yellow Underwing.

Photograph: David Williams

In the area dominated by large heather bushes we found a gravid spiked shieldbug. Its state can be deduced from the distended shape of its abdomen.

Photograph: David Williams

This area of the moss was proving to be very rewarding for us.

Flitting around the pools was a small drangonfly. This was a black darter.

Photograph: David Williams

There was also a larger hawker buzzing about but we were unable to get close enough for long enough to identify it.

A bog bush-cricket was located and photographed.

Photograph: David Williams

As we walked along this track into the moss we came across a mystery object to add to the mystery fields:

from below

What is it, what is it used for? Was it a pheromone lure to attract a certain species of insect? We have no idea.

Time caught up with us earlier than usual. We had a long walk back to the cars so we set off on our return a bit earlier than normal. Also I knew that we always got distracted when we walked anywhere.

And so it proved as a Drinker caterpillar was found on the path.

Photograph: David Williams

Finally back at the cars we bade our farewells as another successful Joy of Wildlife programme drew to a close.

My thanks to Shropshire Wildlife Trust for giving us permission to do what we enjoy doing and to the photographers David Williams and Nigel Cane-Honeysett for allowing me to use their photographs.

Finally my thanks to all those who have joined us on our trips this year to see what nature has to offer, to enjoy each others company and help contribute to the wildlife records for Shropshire, Staffordshire and Montgomeryshire, and to you the readers of these little fancies that, I hope, keep you entertained and up to date with our activities.