Agelena labyrinthica frustration

At the weekend I went looking for Agelena labyrinthica, with some ups and downs.

In the South East, Agelena labyrinthica is fairly commonly encountered, but that's not the case in VC55 (Leicestershire and Rutland) where it's only known from a handful of sites. I visited one at the weekend and found it, but the day was a little more complicated that it seems. We soon found an area of the site rich in the characteristic webs, but the spiders weren't playing. Detecting any sign of movement, they were off down the funnel, making photographs effectively impossible:



Eventually I found one going nuts over not one but two Roesel's Bush-crickets (Metrioptera roeselii) in its web. I think these were probably disturbed as I approached the web and jumped in. The spider was dashing back and forwards, trying to subdue first one and then the other, thinking Christmas had come early. But it was also pretty wary, retreating back down the funnel if I got too close, and because the web was in deep vegetation I couldn't get any good photos:



I spent several more hours trying to get a better photo but failed and eventually had to give up. However, when I popped the memory card in the computer I was surprised/embarrassed to see that the very first photo I had taken in the morning was the only decent shot I managed the whole day:



One odd observation, there's only ever been one record of Pisaura mirabilis from this site, and I didn't see any all day, which seems strange.