Spiders web for id please

[No.9 Spider]

Out of interest have a look at juvenile Segestria senoculata, they are similar in shape to your spider and occur in the habitat shown. However I'd personally stick with the caterpillar theory as we don't have any species over here that are strictly 'commensal' species ie; living and acting together, which would be the case in this instance to produce a similar web.
Perhaps you could post the photo's in the section for the butterfly/caterpillar people, they may not see it here and may recognise it.


No.9 Spider

[ashgale]

it would appear that you guys were on the right track with the caterpillar theory,
i went back to the tree this morning to see what else i could find, the first thing was -no spiders to be found at all !
after half an hours searching the tree plus several nearby ones i managed to find a couple of caterpillars and one moth ,
no idea if these are responsible for the web or not though,
i will take no9 spiders advice and post this in the moth section later,

many thanks to all for the suggestions so far, i'm intrigued now to get the answer to this little puzzler, if i cant get the answer on WAB then i will have to admit defeat

[bigdave60dog]

Not convinced by the moth theory. These may be incidental or just stuck on the web. Larva could be eating protein rich web of something else.
Mites can and often do look like spiders Eg "Red Spider" Mite.
I have only seen a web like this in association with mites but these were obviously making the web. They were in clumps all over the web. Thousands of them.
Another thought has just occurred. Is there any chance that this area could have been completely covered for a few months? If so, moths or spiders cpuld well be involved.
Dave