Ok, so if anything was going to test my ‘I can be brave about the spiders’ stance with the kids it was going to be today. We decided to move the pile of patio slabs that have taken residence in the garden to a less intrusive position. Now I knew that there would be some hairy legged monsters in there so while my dad was moving the bricks I took the opportunity to do some mini beast watching with the kids. With a call of “look girls, Grandad has found a Mr Skinny Legs!”, we all took to standing at a (rather pale and sweaty) distance to observe the creepy crawlies that were running for cover as their homes were destroyed. The hobnailed booted wolf and hobo spiders were out first giving it speed across the patio to shelter, running away from us (the correct direction), but after that came these weird little shiney guys.
Now, these little guys were about the size of a penny and ran straight at us (read it ran towards me, I tried to look calm as I scurried inside ushering the kids away). After we found a single one on the wall I got all brave and decided to take a photo – to proove 1. I am not an archnid-wus and spiders are nothing to be scared of are they kids… and 2. I wanted to find out what the hell it was as I’ve not seen a shiney spider before. So using my No.2 reason for my eight-legged photos i started searching the net for a similar shiney black spider…
Do now rememeber we live in he UK – the spiders we have here are about as follows: hobo (big ‘n hairy), wolf (big ‘n hairy), house spider (big ‘n hairy), garden (spikey and stripey), daddy long legs (bit like a supermodel – stupidly skinny, long legs and very venomous – but too weak to actually bite haha). Or is it? Lots of unnerving reports on widow spiders making an entrance as the climate gets warmer…
Err… is it me or does this picture seem a little familiar (if not, go take another look at my picture above… ). This is a widow spider, of the black variety. Not common in the UK although false widows are increasingly common. Except my little creepy friends weren’t brown – they were shiney and black – before you ask me questions, I have no idea if they had a red diamond under their abdomens, frankly I had no intentions of seeing if they wanted a tummy tickle!
Ok… more research…
Ahh the Natural History Museum – at last a source of actual research that isn’t a newspaper trying to make me itch with sticky legged ickyness. It is most likely that we have a garden of false widows…
Their take on my freaking outness is:
“The false widow spiders belong to the genus, or group, called Steatoda . There are six species of Steatoda found in the UK including one introduced species, Steatoda nobilis .
This group of spiders get their name because they look similar to the true black widow group of spiders, genus Latrodectus .
One species of false widow spider, Steatoda nobilis , appears to be the UK’s most venomous spider.
This species came from the Canary and Madeiran Islands over a 100 years ago. It has been established in Devon for a long time but in recent years has been spreading along the south and east of England and is likely to spread northwards in years to come.
This spider has a brown bulbous abdomen with pale markings and the females grow to 15mm. They live in walls, fences and the barks of trees and eat insects, other invertebrates and even other spiders.
There are 640 species of spider in the UK. Only 12 of these have been known to bite humans in the UK and this includes two Steatoda species, S. grossa and S. nobilis .
The severity of symptoms from any spider bite depends on the amount of venom that is injected. False widow spider bite reports include symptoms such as chest pains, swelling and tingling of fingers”
Bleugh. icky icky icky. But not a black widow. A noble false widow – or to use the more technical term for our little dude, the noble FLAT false widow. Spider 0, me 1.
I found this page as i just found the same looking spider in my garage while having a clean out … what a great discovery , i work outside and see spiders all the time this one has to be the queen of all the spiders i have ever seen in England , great web page .
My dad and mum gave me their old strimmer the other day and i unpacked it today 27/4/2010 it still had grass in it from a while back typical parents leavin it for me to clean so i put my finger in and flicked the grass out apart from a little bit i went to flick the rest out and suddenly a spider ran out black and shiney with dents on body i stopped straight away as i knew that this was’nt any old spider as i lov watchin wildlife i destinctively stopped,it looked like a black widow so i was not takin any chances i got a plastic pot with a lid made tiny holes in top and put it in there i came on to the internet for more info and came accross this so i examined the spider with a torch and discovered that it did’nt have red underneath but it was a pale yellow so it looks and sound like the british venomous type which obviously can still bite and give u after effects but wow wot a discovery!!!!!!!!!!!!