Ballachurry Reserve: Spider Identification Workshop, 18th August 2018.

Crab Spider

Saturday, 18th August saw Ballachurry Reserve as the venue for a Spider Identification Workshop organised by the Manx Wildlife Trust and led by Kate Hawkins.  I was lucky enough to be one of the participants and had a thoroughly enjoyable and informative afternoon. After some initial general information Kate took us on a spider hunt in the damp meadow area bounded by the two streams. We also checked out a nearby gorse bush and the area under the wooden bridge. Specimens were soon being "potted" for closer inspection/identification and Kate explained how the various families of spiders went about courtship and catching their prey.

During the course of our hunt for spiders a number of other creatures were spotted and I managed to photograph some of them. These included a frog, 7-spot Ladybirds, several Common Blue butterflies and a Ruby Tailed Wasp, (found by and identified by Louise Samson), which is a new record for the Reserve. 

I will add captions to the spider photos once the identifications have been confirmed (the notes I made for each one are a little sketchy and I don't want to hazard wrong information!) I am also seeking identification of the other invertebrates and will update this post once I have all the information.

It was a great afternoon and we all hope to participate in further Spider Identification events next year. All the spiders were released unharmed back to the areas where found.

(Click on photos to enlarge them then click again to move to next one)

Kate explaining about the various spider families

beating about the bush - given a shake, several small spiders
fell out of the gorse on to the beating tray

these were quickly "potted" for examination and identification

Kate taking a closer look....

and demonstrating how to use a sweep net in the damp meadow

Kate identifying the spiders we caught ourselves and "potted"

Magnifying glasses and hand lenses came in very useful

Spider under observation - male Metellina species
(one of the Long-jawed Orbweb spiders)

could not be identified from this angle

Wolf Spider ( Pardosa species)

female Metellina species

female Metellina species

Clubiona species (one of the Sac spiders)

Clubiona species ( one of the Sac spiders)

close- up of the above 

male Pachygnatha species
(another of the Long Jawed Orbweb Spiders family)

male Pachygnatha species
(another of the Long Jawed Orbweb Spiders family)

male Pachygnatha species
(another of theLong Jawed Orbweb Spiders family) 

Money Spider ( Linyphiliidae family)

This Money spider has been parisitised and is being eaten alive!
(probably by a Ichneumon Wasp larva)

A few photos follow of what else we saw during the afternoon

 Probably Ichneumon Wasp

Common Green Shieldbug nymph

Gorse Shieldbug liked Kate's T-Shirt!

7-spot Ladybird

possibly a flee beetle? 

there is a similar workshop on Beetles coming up in September
see MWT's  website/ Facebook page for further details

Common Blue Butterfly

this frog clearly wanted to be identified!

another 7-spot Ladybird

and another elsewhere

Ruby Tailed Wasp

eye contact!

beautiful  - but Google them to find out what they get up to!

ID being sought

Many thanks to Kate ( and Laura McCoy from the Manx Museum who assisted her) for a splendid afternoon.