Little Venice is still quite muddy, there is little grass but carpets of water starwort and algae. Amongst the green and sludgy brown, tiny dots of scarlet caught my attention. They kept disappearing into the matting of debris and vegetation, but this is what they looked like – tiny eight-legged bugs, more tick-shaped than spiderlike, even though they are arachnids. In fact, the two front legs are used as feelers, as they have no antennae. They are most often seen in spring when they emerge from hibernation, and they are carnivorous and feed on even smaller creatures and their eggs.
