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Esmond Brown

@chalkspring.bsky.social
218 followers 194 following 258 posts

Gentleman, scholar and sometime acrobat. Foodie, chef, rugby player, birder, diplomat, drinker of fine malt whisky and gin. Your friendly neighbourhood spiderman – if your neighbourhood is The Chilterns, South Buckinghamshire or the Scottish Highlands – UK

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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 5h
😆
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 6h
That is great! Why is Atypus affinis the only one with its common name?
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Amazing find!
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
That is brilliant camouflage!
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Oops, wrong photo. Sorry folks, there isn't a spider in this image
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I often find Salticus cingulatus alongside Marpissa muscosa. Try staring at sunlit Scots Pine trunks
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Adult male Anyphaena numida, absolutely
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Far more records than for corniculans, so perhaps I just need to keep my eyes open
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I *need* to add this one to my list
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
You really should! Walckenaeria have a 'look' - you can recognise them in the field and most, if not all (especially the males with their wacky head paraphernalia) can be identified with a hand lens or macro photo. Beware, it's addictive!
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
@britishspiders.bsky.social @tylanberry.bsky.social @graemelyons.bsky.social Feels like the start of Autumn - Linyphiidae season. A nice Small-horned Walckenaer (Walckenaeria corniculans) from the weekend, to start things off
Image shows the head detail of a small yellow-brown Money Spider, in close-up. The spider has a small horn at the tip of its cephalothorax that has a tuft of hairs protruding
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Good luck on getting to see one - they don't disappoint
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I'd seen a couple of old (35+ years) records on the River Towy, near Dryslwyn, which wasn't too big a diversion off my route home. A short walk to a patch of shingle on a bend in the river
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
@britishspiders.bsky.social @tylanberry.bsky.social @cofnod.org.uk A quick stop-off in Wales, to find a spider that I've yet to see in England. It always surprises me just how well such a big spider can 'hide in plain sight' on bare stone Arctosa cinerea is always a sight to behold
A large spider camouflaged amongst stones revealed by reduced water levels on the river
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Is it wrong for me to presume that there IS pressure on school places in our cities, and falling pupil numbers are largely from rural locations?
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Awesome find. I might have to come visit
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Yes, indeed. One of its vernacular names is Invisible Spider
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
🤣🤣🤣🤣 How dare you?
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
An adult male – preoccupied with finding a female and not 'looking' where he's going
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Unfortunately Metopobactrus prominulus has the least interesting profile of the genus, and didn't really want his photo taken
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
I got a bit side-tracked, but here are a quartet: Walckenaeria cucullata, Hypomma bituberculatum, Thyreostenius biovatus and Walckenaeria corniculans
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Are you sure this is a Lulworth? It looks very much like a Large Skipper to me, with the patterning visible on the underside of the hindwing
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
I'm not an expert, but the extent of black on the abdominal segments looks wrong, even for form melanotum. The legs on Large Red should be uniformly black. Do you have any other photos - ones showing the dorsal markings from directly above?
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
@britishspiders.bsky.social @cofnod.org.uk @tylanberry.bsky.social More spiders on the move. Enoplognatha mordax, moving inland from the coast, a first for me and maybe VC24 too. Meanwhile, Theridion pinastri and Macaroeris are busy establishing themselves in the south of the county
Enoplognatha mordax, a medium-sized Comb-footed SpiderTheridion pinastri, a small Comb-footed SpiderA male Macaroeris nidicolens, a medium-sized Jumping Spider
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Reposted by Esmond Brown
James Chisnall @chizz13.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Quite stop off in the New Forest before heading to Bournemouth, glad i did, not the spider i was looking for, but super happy with this. Dipoena melanogaster Classied as rare and endangered. @britishspiders.bsky.social #spiders #arachnids #Dipoena
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
I wondered what powers you'd gain after being bitten by that Drassodes. The ability to find elusive spiders could come in very handy
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
😑
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
@britishspiders.bsky.social @cofnod.org.uk @tylanberry.bsky.social Philodromus buxi is slowly spreading outwards from London. This, an adult male, is the first time I've seen it in my Buckinghamshire garden
Running Crab Spider with long and conspicuously striped legs, sitting on a painted metal surface
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Did you call them insects???
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
I've seen fuscum in your neck of the woods – with Theridion hannoniae
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Excellent! I'm lucky if I see one a year
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
A Nursery Web Spider, Pisaura mirabilis
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Excellent find. Is that the full Ozyptila/Cozyptila set for you?
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
X is a cesspit
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Favourite? Really? I'm not having that – there are some fabulous species in this family: Asagena phalerata, Parasteatoda lunata, any Dipoena/Lasaeola, Rugathodes, Sardinidion
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Reposted by Esmond Brown
Rob Yaxley @robyaxley.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
An insect body part, recovered from an 80cm deep peat core in a mid-Norfolk fen. It seems quite a distinctive shape, so somebody may even know what species it is from. Let me know if you do! 1.3mm.
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Hello darkness, my old friend?
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
Yes, Ange showed me some close-up stills. I've never seen this behaviour before – in Pirata or any other Lycosidae. @angelajaneswinn.bsky.social you should post some of the later footage
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
That Ephippiochthonius is very nice
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
@britishspiders.bsky.social @tylanberry.bsky.social @cofnod.org.uk @bucksinvertgroup.bsky.social A spider that's neither rare nor particularly scarce. It has, however, taken me an awful long time and many fruitless searches to finally find Pachygnatha listeri
A small spider with a pitted orange cephalothorax in the family Tetragnathidae - Pachygnatha listeri, Lister's Thick-jawA small spider with a pitted orange cephalothorax in the family Tetragnathidae - Pachygnatha listeri, Lister's Thick-jaw
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Those egg sacs are amazing
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Reposted by Esmond Brown
James Chisnall @chizz13.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
After searching for this spider at other sites and failing to find it, i was glad to pick this male up at the weekend, old records from the site nearly 20 years old. Zelotes electus. @britishspiders.bsky.social #zelotes #spiders #arachnids
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Someone innocently stumbling across this thread is going to be traumatised!
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
We call that 'mouthfeel'
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
The forbidden caviar 😋
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Assuming you're in the USA, this is Hibana gracilis, Garden Ghost Spider
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
I think that's Lathys humilis
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Fence Post Jumping Spider – Marpissa muscosa – Rindenspringspinne
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Yes, a very pale Steatoda nobilis, Noble False Widow
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Esmond Brown @chalkspring.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Pardosa nigriceps for the Lycosid
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