09 Nov 2026, 03:05 PM

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Hexham, Northumberland: Revelations aplenty as we embark on a spider hunt with a man called Fran who knows his arachnidsWe gathered at the bandstand, an elegant Edwardian building in the abbey grounds, all slender ironwork and tented top. Fran Garcia was leading a spider walk and our group of 10 included two children, one of them my granddaughter. Fran is a member of the British Arachnological Society and communicates knowledge with lively humour.As an introduction to spiders he explained their anatomy and web building using a bizarre range of items: wire and ropes of varying thicknesses, a bottle of glue, a folding knife to demonstrate tarantula jaws. Then Fran passed around an egg sac from a wasp spider, Argiope bruennichi, a species found in southern England but moving north. Teardrop-shaped and papery, it was subtly marked in grey and beige to blend with grasses. Continue reading...

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