Another invertebrate discovery at Ipswich Golf Club aroused interest in June last year (in White Admiral 56 I reported my discovery of the Sawyer beetle Prionus coriaius , also in 2003). This time it was some large spiders.
The 
spiders were first reported to me in by one of my work colleagues, who had been
working on the irrigation system. At every green on the course, there is a
small manhole containing all the electronics and a standpipe to water the
grass. At one particular spot, he had opened the irrigation box to find several
large dark brown coloured spiders inside the lid. Not being sure of what they
were and whether they were harmful or not, he replaced the manhole cover very
quickly. All the staff at the site know to report anything of this nature to
myself, so later that day I went to investigate. Sure enough, there were the
spiders, and they did look quite big and menacing. The largest were
approximately 15mm in size, smooth and glossy in texture, dark brown with some
reddish marks on the abdomen. The most noticeable thing about them was the
length of the legs, which appeared long for the size of the body and had lots
of large bristles on them (see photo). They reminded me vaguely of the Black
Widow. Using a stick, I collected one of the spiders and put it on the ground
so I could take a few digital images. The spider was then placed back inside
the box. Word soon spread amongst all the other green staff, who were all very
interested in the spiders, and were quite keen for me to try and find out what
they were.
After a brief check though the Collins Field Guide to Spiders at home, I couldn’t find anything to match the photos of my specimen, so I emailed a picture to Paul Lee, to see if he could identify it. His reply was that it was one of two species, either Meta bourneti or Meta menardi , both of which are normally found living in areas of total darkness such as caves, tunnels and drains. A specimen was required to distinguish between the two. I returned to the site, and collected a small specimen and posted it to Paul. Unfortunately it was immature so could not be identified. I obtained another larger spider, which was confirmed as Meta bourneti , a nationally scarce species, with four records thus far from Suffolk . I reported Paul’s comments back to the staff, who were very pleased to hear the information, especially as I mentioned it was nationally scarce – anything with a bit of rarity value seems to hold their interest.
A check of the other irrigation boxes has not revealed any more Meta bourneti yet. It amazes me how these spiders managed to get there: the site is right in the centre of the course in an open area, and is just a 40cm by 70cm hole in the ground!
Acknowledgement
Many thanks to Paul Lee for identifying and providing information about the spider. He also kindly reported this discovery in the spiders’ section of British Wildlife
(Volume 15 , number 1, October 2003). This helps to raise the profile of golf courses as important sites for wildlife.
Neil Sherman, Conservation Officer Ipswich Golf Club
