Described by Wikipedia as "air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk; the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all orders of organisms" Royal Mail's next stamp issue features a set of ten spiders.
Of the 48,000 or so species of spiders found worldwide, around 680 are recorded in the United Kingdom. They can be found in almost every habitat – from windswept mountain tops to domestic dwellings. The set of ten stamps includes 5 each of 2nd class and 1st class.
Five 2nd class and five 1st class Spider stamps in se-tenant strips issued 26 September 2024 |
The stamp designs
2nd class: Sand bear spider, Cucumber spider, Woodland jumping spider, Four-spotted orb web*spider, Nurseryweb spider; (*not orb weaver as originally published - the issued stamp will be correct.)
Corrected version of the Orbweb spider stamp:
Four-spotted Orbweb Spider stamp
1st class: Ladybird spider, Candy-striped spider, Wasp spider, Zebra spider, Heather crab spider.
Technical details
The 37 x 35 mm stamps were designed by Richard Lewington and printed on gummed paper by Cartor Security Printers in litho. Perforations are 14 x 14½. Sheets are of 60 (probably two panes of 30).
Products
Stamp set, first day cover, presentation pack, stamp cards.
Details from presentation pack
Of the 48,000 o or so species of spider found worldwide, around 680 are recorded in the United Kingdom. They represent 38 families from a world total of 115, which means that there is plenty of variety in the British spider fauna. Spiders can be found in almost every habitat – from windswept mountain tops to the deepest caves, and from ancient woodlands to domestic dwellings – each of which provides specific environments that suit particular spiders.
Spiders have eight legs and two parts to the body: the cephalothorax, covered with a shield-like carapace, and the abdomen, both of which may be quite colourful and have clear markings. Most British spiders have eight eyes, but those in four families have just six. Size, which relates to the body length and excludes the legs, varies from 2mm to 22mm. Females are generally larger than males, extravagantly so in a few cases.
Spiders found in the UK feed almost exclusively on invertebrates and play a vital role in controlling pests, particularly in domestic environments. Close observation of a large orb web of a garden spider in the early autumn will reveal the remains of countless greenfly entrapped, perhaps in a period of just one day. Four families, the Araneidae, Tetragnathidae, Uloboridae and Theridiosomatidae, spin orb webs. Other families, such as the Eresidae and Atypidae, weave tunnels of silk in burrows underground with exposed, camouflaged sections at the surface that entangle passing insects.
The Agelenidae, which include the familiar large house spiders, also incorporate tunnel-shaped retreats into their sheet-like webs, which can be quite extensive in outbuildings when left undisturbed.
But webs are not the only means of catching prey. Other spider families use different tactics to provide themselves with food. For example, wolf spiders (Lycosidae) do not spin a web; instead, they run rapidly over the ground, simply chasing down their prey.
Jumping spiders (Salticidae) also do not spin webs to catch food. Their excellent eyesight enables them to determine the location of potential prey nearby, before they position themselves to leap forward to capture it. Conversely, the crab spiders (Thomisidae) are quite sedentary and lie in wait, often in flowerheads, to ambush insects feeding on nectar and pollen.
However, their close relatives, the running crab spiders (Philodromidae), scuttle rapidly among the foliage of trees and bushes in their hunt for prey.
Spider silk is produced for different purposes, ranging from the creation of protective egg sacs or cocoons for newly hatched spiderlings to the spinning of the complicated structure of the orb web.
One of the most remarkable ways in which spiders use silk is a dispersal method known as ‘ballooning’. In suitable weather conditions, small adult ‘money spiders’ and immature individuals of larger species climb to an exposed position, such as the top of a fence post, and spin threads of silk that are then (with the spider attached) caught up in the wind. Considerable distances can be travelled in this way, and height seems to present no problem. In the Voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin reported seeing spiders ballooning on the rigging of the ship sailing 60 miles off the Argentinian coast. Recent research has shown that electrostatic forces in the Earth’s atmosphere may also have some part to play in this ‘flying’ adventure that many spiders undertake. The results of ballooning can sometimes be observed on clear autumn evenings.
Fields covered with a fine blanket of silken threads, or gossamer, attest to the presence of countless small spiders, all taking advantage of suitable weather conditions to balloon. It has been estimated that an acre of grassland could support up to 2.25 million individual spiders at this time of year, so the silken mantle can be quite substantial.
Not a bad looking set of stamps, the white backgrounds remind of the flowers stamps, which were the first King Charles commemorative stamps issued. If you are going to buy a set of these online or from the Post Office it's cheaper to do so before the October price increase when 1st class go up a significant 30 pence each which means these will go up by £1.50 from £11.00 to £12.50 or £11.90 to £13.40 for the presentation pack. I collect Royal Mail presentation packs and Irish An Post stamps the former is getting too expensive even if I only buy about half of those issued every year.
ReplyDeleteAnother set easy to fake just like the KCIII Flowers . With the 30p increase in 1st which probably includes 10p to cover the huge quantities of fakes when will Royal Mail invalidate all non barcode stamps including these as they logically should.
DeleteAnonymous,
DeleteBut aren't barcoded stamps still being faked too ?
But barcode stamps are also being forged abroad
DeleteFake barcode stamps can easily be identified by Royal Mail should they wish to! However with their hands tied behind their backs by a populist attitude of ' it's not my fault I used a fake stamp' ...which is no defence.The £5 fine should be reintroduced and probably doubled . You don't walk away from your weekly shop at the supermarket with the goods if your defence is these fake £20 notes came from the cash point.
DeleteThe quantity of letters with stamps on has dwindled greatly. Yesterday I was told in a Crown Office in Hainault that I could have no 10p stamps because they do no 'special stamps': just 1st NVI, 2nd NVI and £2.50. If I wanted anything else I was told that they would print a Horizon label for it. In a sorting office you do not see a single commemorative every day, so the proportion of revenue lost from fake commemoratives is tiny & thus not worth the expense of trying to prosecute a few shifty Chinamen.
DeleteAccording to https://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/stamps "Stamps can also be used to post letters and cards abroad or as make-up values and are available at all Post Offices in denominations from 1p to £5" which implies any PO should have any stamp. I'd expect a Crown PO to be obliged to do so and what the clerk means is "I think we've run out and can't be bothered to ask the boss if there are any in the safe." Maybe many people are not bothered about getting a Horizon label on a parcel but they're a b*gger on a postcard!
DeleteThanks for the actual situation. It is amazing the ignorance of their trade that Crown PO staff have. In the last year I have been told that commemoratives are only for presentation packs, they are not just single things to be stuck on letters; you cannot buy just 10 because it spoils the sheets and they are reserved for collectors who want complete sheets; every old commemorative has been invalidated, commemoratives only come out at Xmas...You do not get this level of ignorance at Harrod's or The Ritz!
DeleteRe: "Anonymous20 September 2024 at 07:30
DeleteFake barcode stamps can easily be identified by Royal Mail should they wish to! However with their hands tied behind their backs by a populist attitude of ' it's not my fault I used a fake stamp' ...which is no defence.
The £5 fine should be reintroduced and probably doubled . You don't walk away from your weekly shop at the supermarket with the goods if your defence is these fake £20 notes came from the cash point."
[It seems I cannot reply to specific replies!]
You surely miss the point: the penalties have been levied on the innocent recipient of the letter/packet, not the user, which is against all natural justice.
To continue your analogy, nobody fines/penalises the supermarket if a customer uses a fake note. The bank just refuses to accept the note and the supermarket bears the cost. Meanwhile the police et al pursue the note forgers.
Royal Mail is taking the easy way out by clawing back not only the postage cost but a penalty to cover the cost of levying the penalty. Penalising the innocent does nothing to stop the use of forgeries.
I agree with your final sentence - it's a criminal offence to use the forged stamps. But charging the person who received a letter/packet with a forged stamp on, rather than the person who USED the stamp is against natural justice. Just admit that, please?
DeleteIan, Charging the person who USED the stamp would of course be much more difficult for Royal Mail and criminal prosecution would be unlikely in an age when the police don't really regard shoplifting as a crime. Many of the people who USED the stamp wouldn't know it's a forgery although buying them for substantially less than the face value should be a clue.
Delete