Website forms and recording
Fig. 4. All records for Argiope bruennichi records to date (same symbol key as Fig. 2)
It is interesting how the response to different species varies - no forms at all have been received Tor
the large and striking red and black coloured froghopper Cercopis vulnerata. This is not a garden
species, but is not uncommon in the wider country side and one would expect naturalists and members
of the public alike to notice it. Very few forms have been submitted for the Zebra Spider Salticus
scenicus (this year 8 UK and 1 each from Canada and USA) or the Garden Spider Araneus
diadematus (5 UK and 1 each from Canada and USA), yet these are almost certainly present in just
about every garden in Essex. They are both very under-recorded in coverage terms and records
would be very useful.
The large number of people who submit records from many different counties and countries makes
it clear that there is a big demand for people to be able to submit certain kinds of observation. Not
surprisingly it is the large and striking species that seem to dominate -for example every year in
late summer and autumn, email enquiries start to come in about large spiders that people see for the
first time in their house or garden, usually just after their son/daughter has returned from far-flung
foreign places. They are often concerned that the spiders may be a foreign import and deadly-
poisonous ! In almost every case they turn out to be Araneus diadematus or one of the larger Tegenaria
species that they have never noticed before. On the other hand a number of enquiries and record
fonns about bites from the south coast and the Southend area in Essex have turned out to be
Steatoda nobilis, including a specimen from Ivybridge in Devon, the first record from that county
since the original British record near Torquay by Pickard-Cambridge in 1879 (see Fig. 5).
Conclusions
The widely varying response to different species is interesting and the reasons for this are worth
considering. One thing is clear from the large number of people in many different counties and
countries that submit records, there is a demand for people to be able to submit observations and
I6
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 21 (2004)