My partner has a car with a glass roof, and one day when we were parked in the countryside, this little guy wandered across it. This was the only photo I was able to get. Identifying this guy was a bit of a stab in the dark. For starters, he was outside of the car whilst I was in it, and beyond that - I only had the underside of him to go on. I am reasonably sure he is a male based on the large "blobs" at the end of his pedipalps. They would look almost like boxing gloves from above.Still, I do think I've got it - based on his colour, the arrangement of his legs, and his size (approximately 1cm), I believe this guy to be a green huntsman spider, Micrommata virescens.Males of this species range from 7 to 10 mm long, and while the females are entirely green, the males have the vibrant red and yellow striped abdomens. As you can see from the photo I took, there is a reddish hue shining through from above the abdomen, so I believe that he had these markings.
These spiders are found in woodlands, in clearings, meadows, and anywhere grassy or with low tree branches. They hunt their prey, they don't make webs, and are native to Europe and Southern Britain. It is breeding season for these spiders, and presumably he was on a mission to find a female as these males tend to die soon after mating, and he was definitely scurrying along with intent, rather than taking a calm stroll. Hopefully he finds what he's looking for.
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