Over the past few months I have been visiting churches across Cheshire at night, looking by torchlight for and collecting spiders and woodlice. The target species were Megalepthyphantes sp near collinus and Cryptachaea blattea. With the former usually collected from its sheet web which is built across a corner of the church’s wall with the spider having a hideaway in a hole in the brickwork (at night the spider is usually sitting in the centre, upside down on the underside of its web), the webs are usually a few inches above ground level. The latter is usually collected from under overhangs and corners of churches and churchyard walls, the webs are a small tangled affair full of debris with the spider hiding within, this species is usually found between one and six feet above the ground.

As a new comer to this part of the country I’m still juggling with the boundaries of the different maps that one uses to navigate and record wildlife across Cheshire, and I made a mistake. Using modern OS Maps as a guide to the northern Cheshire boundary I assumed that Warrington was part of VC58 (Cheshire), so happily visited several churches in South Lancashire on the 18/03/2025. At St Elphins church, Warrington(SJ615884), a female Megalepthyphantes sp. near collinus was collected along with a female Cryptachaea blattea. The other church visited was St Oswalds church, Winwick (SJ603928), where one male and two female C. blattea were also recorded.

The Megalepthyphantes sp. near collinus is a new county record for South Lancashire, but if Cheshire is anything to go by this species will prove to be a lot more widespread across VC59.