Woolly Jumper
16th August 2007, ThursdayWhile carrying out the regular butterfly and dragonfly counts at Castle Water I came across this large (8mm), rather furry looking jumping spider on a gate post. It is a male Marpissa muscosa, a rare species which has never been recorded from the reserve before. This species is often found on either tree trunks or fence posts, and while it is not obvious from this image, is somewhat flattened allowing it to squeeze into cracks (this particular individual was coaxed out of the crack on the left to take the pic)
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Male Marpissa muscosa