Larinioides cornutus

This was found inside the head of a bulrush flower between a lake and a beck. It had expanded pedipalps leading me to sex it as a male but these were sealed and contained fluid but no trace of any organs, so was presumably immature. NatureSpot cites Bee, Oxford & Smith saying confirmation, "Requires examination at high magnification in good lighting, typically examination of the genitalia". With it being immature (and me having no information to indicate what else might be helpful to examine at high magnification) this begs the question of whether or not it can be safely identified. However as far as I can tell the overall appearance, size (4.2mm long scrunched up after death - would have been a bit longer alive I think) and habitat are probably sufficient for a confident ID. Happy to be advised otherwise.

immmature male Larinioides cornutus, Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 28th March 2025

It turns out that I had identified this species before, though if the one above wasn't safe to regard as positively identified this one certainly wasn't. It was found indoors, so not the correct habitat (for any of the options so far as I can tell), and it would not have been examined microscopically back then.

Larinioides cornutus, North Elmham (Norfolk, UK), 18th June 2015