A Mixed Bag of Bank Holiday Sightings from our Garden and Local Nature Reserve

14-spot Ladybirds mating on a nettle in our garden this morning

 

A rolled-up oak leaf on the reserve ... which may suggest that the dangling caterpillar below

... is the larva of Oak Leaf Roller moth Tortrix viridana

... though it could be the larval stage of the Winter moth (Operophtera)

Back in the garden, the caterpillar of the Bagworm (moth)

... turning this way and that

Garden: a Nursery Web spider (left) and a spider exoskeleton (right)

The exoskeleton

A parasitised caterpillar with eggs, apparently (thanks to iSpot), and claspers showing

If I receive more information from the kind iSpot enthusiasts, I will update the page.

Nursery-Web Spiderlings Expected in Home Patch

With the spider's legs in all directions, I had to look twice to see what was going on here; but as soon as I realised I was looking at a spider with her egg-sac, the scene began to make perfect sense. You can read more about these arachnids here. We have had these spiders in the garden before, but this is my first sighting of the egg-sac.