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Spiders are a group of invertebrates that I admit to knowing little or nothing about. As with most difficult to identify groups in nature it is usually the large and colourful species that first grab one’s attention. Recently I received a tip off that Raft Spiders Dolomedes fimbriatus were to be found in a boggy inlet of a loch less than a mile from home. At this time of year the females can be located guarding nursery webs on top of the bog vegetation. Hitherto I was unaware that these large spiders occurred much north of the fens of East Anglia. My first attempt to locate them only turned up Nursery web Spiders Pisura mirablis, a slightly smaller related species, which is not usually found in the north of Britain. Later when I returned to the site I found that following a spell prolonged rainfall, the level of loch had raised to such an extent that further exploration was futile. Undaunted I eventually tracked Dolomedes down to another site that I suspected might be suitable.
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