There was a spider egg sac in the back garden. I kept checking it out to see what it was because I could not find any resource to identify it. The spiderlings hatched but they were too tiny to pinpoint them. A couple of days later they started to produce silk and began their journey away as the wind carried them.

Just across the pathway from their birthplace, this spiderling has an old agapanthus flower stem as its first stop. Now I can see what it is. Stabilamentum—the zig zig orb in the centre—is the unique feature of St Andrew’s cross spider. This pattern of stabilamentum will change to a cross figure as it grows up.