Orange-sided comb-horn - a colourful daddy-long-legs

 The two commonest craneflies - Tipula oleracea and T. paludosa - are dull-coloured insects but this female orange-sided comb-horn Ctenophora pectinicornis has an orange and black colour scheme that gives it a hint of menace. We found it in old deciduous woodland on the bank of the river Wear in Durham city. The larvae (leatherjackets) of the two commonest craneflies feed on grass roots in pastures but the larvae of this woodland species feed on decaying fallen timber. 

As is so often the case, this specimen has lost a limb. Easily shed limbs might well be a last resort escape strategy, from the beak of a bird or the web of a spider.

Climbing the Walls

If you have an oldish house with some dark, damp corners - like ours - the chances are that you'll discover sooner or later that you are sharing it with daddy-long-legs spiders Pholcus phalanioides. This is a spider that is only found inside buildings in Britain. It comes from warmer climates and can't survive outside here.

I spotted this individual climbing the walls of our stair well at around midnight last night and noticed that it was carry something in its jaws.

Its cargo turned out to be its eggs, that looked like they might be close to hatching, which female Pholcus spiders carry around for safety. Even an arachnophobe would have to admire this high degree of maternal care. After dark, when we humans sleep, spiders emerge from behind bookcases, under settees and from inaccessible corners to conduct their nocturnal lives, and this one seemed to be moving home, perhaps to spin one of its untidy webs in a corner where it will catch enough prey to feed its spiderlings. If it doesn't, they'll eat each other. Pholcus is especially partial to catching and eating other spiders, including its own kind.

For more on the intriguing world of spiders take a look at the British Arachnological Society web site at http://wiki.britishspiders.org.uk/index.php5?title=Main_Page