The Spider Araneus marmoreus var. pyramidatus at Broakes Wood,
Sible Hedingham
James Northfield 18 Weavers Row, Halstead, Essex C09 2.TX
Autumn is often a good time of year for spider observations, with some spiders reaching
full size, and damp misty mornings making webs much more visible. During an early
morning walk with my daughter on September 24th in Broakes wood, near Sible
Hedingham, we stopped to admire a particularly fine orb web of the type I would usually
associate with the Garden Spider Araneus diadematus. The spider was not on its web
and after a brief search it was located in a camouflaged retreat. My daughter being a
great fan of all things insect and spider asked me to make it come out, so some gentle
prodding with a grass stalk resulted in the spider rushing into the centre of its web and
bouncing aggressively up and down. However, instead of the familiar Garden Spider I
expected, this was a distinctive and handsome large pale yellow female orb spider with
a dark mark in the middle of her abdomen, of a type I had not seen before.
Alook through the "Country Life Guide To Spiders" gave a name of Araneus marmoreus
var. pyramidatus and after a return trip with a digital camera a picture was sent to Peter
Harvey who confirmed identification and also that there were only 2 modern records for
Essex, in the north west of the county, plus one from West Mersea in the 1930s.
A "Provisional Atlas of British Spiders" lists this spider as "an uncommon species with
two distinct colour varieties", the typical form being brownish or greyish with variable
patterning (A. marmoreus) which is "widespread but locally distributed" and the habitat
described in "Country Life Guide to Spiders" is "trees and tall plants in damp woods".
The web was found approximately 1 metre from the ground in low vegetation of rough
grass and dead Umbellifers alongside a track within the wood. A further search of both
sides of the track for a distance of approximately 50 metres resulted in 9 more individuals
being found, all female, on the south facing (north side) of the track.
References:
Jones, D. (1983) The Country Life Guide To Spiders of Britain and Northern Europe.
Feltham: Country Life Books.
Harvey, P.R., Nellist, D.R. & Telfer, M.G (eds) (2002) Provisional Atlas of British
spiders (Arachnida, Araneae), Volumesl & 2. Huntingdon: Biological Records
Centre.
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 49, January 2006
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