Spiders web for id please

[ashgale]

we found this spiders web today on a large birch trunk, it blanketed the trunk from floor level to 12/15 ft up the trunk, covering the heavily fissured bark almost like cling film,
the inhabitants, who were very camera shy were small (2/3mm) with elongated bodies, not the more rounded "normal" spider type, (no prizes for guessing i know nothing about spiders ) who quickly took refuge under the web and surrounding bark of the birch tree,

other trees nearby also had smaller patches of the same thing, but this tree was almost entirely covered by the web,





would this be the nest and young of larger spiders, or are they the actual spiders themselves ?

ashgale

[squishy]

This was in the UK?

I might be making a really stupid suggestion here, but this looks like the home of a webspinner, Embioptera. And your description does fit as well.

They're certainly not native to the UK, but I think a read somewhere that some species are found in non native habitats now due to spreading through commerce.

Like I said, that could easily be a stupid suggestion, but this really does fit.

[thes3raph1m]

my mom would die at the sight of that... spiders... not bothered, but the webs! oh god nooooo

lol,

i plucked a spider off her ceiling the other day with bare hands... for an infirm woman, she can move pretty fast

[bigdave60dog]

I have seen some mites that spin similar webs on Gorse but not on tree trunks. I would go for mites rather than spiders though. I am not good at Mite ID.

[ashgale]

Originally Posted by squishy

This was in the UK?

I might be making a really stupid suggestion here, but this looks like the home of a webspinner, Embioptera. And your description does fit as well.

They're certainly not native to the UK, but I think a read somewhere that some species are found in non native habitats now due to spreading through commerce.

Like I said, that could easily be a stupid suggestion, but this really does fit.

Hi Squishy,
yes it was in the UK , (Clumber Park , Nottinghamshire)
Following your suggestion of Embioptera, i googled it but the small spiders looked nothing like the Embioptera pictured in the results,
they really looked like very small spiders, (which is why i thought they were possibly young ones ?
knowing virtually nothing about spiders, i cant say what other species of spider they resembled to try and aid any id,
i tried taking a photo of them, but at the slightest movement they scuttled into hiding under the web and into the bark crevices,

ashgale.

[ashgale]

Originally Posted by bigdave60dog

I have seen some mites that spin similar webs on Gorse but not on tree trunks. I would go for mites rather than spiders though. I am not good at Mite ID.

Hi, i know less about mites than i do about spiders, but these looked more like a very small spider than a mite (can mites look like spiders ?)


ashgale.

[wildherbalian85]

Could it not have been a caterpillar's web, and the Small spiders you saw where just a coincidence.

[wildherbalian85]

If spiders are responsible i would look in to either "Linyphiinae" or "Agelenopsis"

[No.9 Spider]

I'm inclined to think caterpillars. How many spiders were evident on or near the web at any one time? It's not got the look nor practicality of a spiders web as it'd be no good for catching insects and it's too large for a nursery web. Tree trunks can sometimes get a fair covering of web when there are multiple hatchings of spiderlings that then make their way up to catch the breeze for 'ballooning' dispersion, but the web they leave is in one direction.



No.9 Spider

[ashgale]

thanks for the replies,
caterpillars could be a possibility, but no signs of caterpillars evident,
having seen the spiderlings on threads in the breeze before, this looked nothing like that,
it was the fact that the "web" covered almost all of the tree trunk that made me think it was unusual in the first place,

having googled the suggestions given, the pic below looks similar to the ones found, they were a lighter colour though, and only about 3mm long

http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/ar...nyphiidae1.jpg

ashgale.