Webs on gorse

Introduction

The photograph on this page of Webs on gorse by Robin Webster as part of the Geograph project.

The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk

Webs on gorse

Image: © Robin Webster Taken: 1 Jul 2017

I had a look at the easier bits to get at and could not see anything - I was expecting sawfly larvae (that look like caterpillars): some communal species protect the colony with such webbing. In looking things up later, I found this is the work of gorse spider mites. I had overlooked, and probably could not get close to, the orange bits at some of the vertices. These are doubtless huddles of the tiny mites, Tetranychus lintearius.

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Image Location

coordinates on a map icon
Latitude
52.337761
Longitude
0.661633