• Spiders belong to the Arachnid class which is named after the mythological maiden Arachne who challenged the goddess Athena to a weaving contest and was changed into a spider.
• Spider silk, thickness for thickness, has a breaking strain greater then iron.
• The silk is only 1/200 of a mm. in diameter and is so light that if a spider could spin a single strand to go round the world, it would weigh less than 6oz.
• All spiders have a poisonous bite with which they subdue their prey.

HABITAT & FOOD NEEDS.....

• Despite its name it is not confined to gardens..
• The Garden Spider spins an Orb web; the most sophisticated form of web, laying spirals of silk around a series of radial threads.
• The spider sits in the centre of its web waiting for an insect to get caught in the sticky drops on the spiral threads..

SPECIES IDENTIFICATION & RECORDING......

• Spiders have 8 legs and a 2 part body …. a combined head and thorax, and a large abdomen.
• Most spiders have 8 eyes arranged in 2 rows of 4.
• The Garden Spider is recognized by the large white cross on its brown back.
• It is a large spider 1.2 – 1.5 cm. across the body.

MILLIPEDES (Phylum: Arthropoda, Class: Diplopoda)

INTERESTING FACTS......

• The British species of millipede are all hard bodied and can be divided into snake, flat or pill millipede.
• Millipedes differ from centipedes in having 2 pairs of legs on most body segments, rather than one.
• The Pill Millipede, like the Pill Woodlouse, rollup into a ball when threatened.

HABITAT & FOOD NEEDS.....

• They live in a variety of moist habitats …. woods, grassland, arable soil, compost heaps, and under leaves, stones and bark.
• Millipedes have weak jaws and tend to feed on soft plants, decomposing vegetation or plants damaged by pests or mechanical means.
• The females lay between 10 – 300 eggs. Some species protect their eggs with a hard casing of earth and excrement while others make nests or cells to hold the eggs.

SPECIES IDENTIFICATION & RECORDING......

• Flat-backed is brown in colour with a rather flattened body.
• Pill has an armoured body which is shiny, chestnut brown. Rolls into a ball when disturbed.
• Snake is reddish brown in colour and body is cylindrical in cross section.
• All millipedes have the 2 pairs of legs per segment unlike the centipedes.

MUTE SWAN (Cygnus olor)

INTERESTING FACTS......

• The Mute Swan has long associations with man and in some places has been semi-domesticated. Large numbers gather in the non-breeding season in public parks and rivers subsisting on titbits provided by the public.
• In the Middle Ages swans were a prime source of food.
• The decline in numbers in recent years is primarily due to lead poisoning from fishing weights especially around the Thames, Trent and Warwickshire Avon.
• In flight the wings of a Mute Swan make a unique humming, throbbing sound that replaces the contact calls of other species.

HABITAT & FOOD NEEDS.....

• Widespread on rivers, lakes and estuaries and often close to people.
• It is not very agile on land so seldom strays far from the water.
• The main sources of food are under water and bank side vegetation. They will also graze on grasses and salt marshes.
• Up-ending allows the swan to exploit deeper water reaching down to about 1 metre with its long neck.
• The adult pulls up food for the chicks and also stirs up particles with their feet.
• In the breeding season some become territorial and each pair will defend their area while others breed in colonies with nests only a few metres apart.
• They nest beside the water making a huge mound of vegetation in which they lay 5 – 8 huge,chalky green eggs from April to June.
  

SPECIES IDENTIFICATION & RECORDING......

• Adult birds have pure white plumage, black legs and orange / red bill. The black knob at the base of the bill is smaller in the female bird.
• Fully grown juvenile birds have buffish brown plumage and a dirty pink bill.
• Aggressive males will chase off intruders, flying and then swimming quickly towards them. This spectacular behaviour is called “Busking”, with arched wings, breast thrust forwards, head curved back and neck feathers fluffed out.
• Adults grow to 145 – 160 cm. and 8 – 13 kg. in weight.
  

Learn more about Swans in the Medway river by reading the article by E.G. Philp in our September 2005 Newsletter (issue 5)