Britain`s Spiders – A Field Guide (WILDGuides of Britain & Europe, 21)

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A warm and dry autumn provides a longer season for many of the male spiders, who will roam around for longer rather than finding a dry garage or attic to hide in when it's wet. There are around 650 species of spider in the UK, ranging from those with a leg span of just a couple of millimetres, to the 12cm leg span of the cardinal spider. Spiders are predators, and they use an impressive pair of fangs to catch prey, and to introduce venom. All spiders have fangs but not all spiders have fangs that are able to pierce human skin. Consequently, there are relatively few UK species that are able to bite us in any meaningful way.

There are over 650 species of spider within the UK, and although many may find spiders unappealing or even frightening, they are fascinating in their own right. While many spiders are present throughout the year, autumn is the best time to see them outdoors. When it comes to lists of common phobias, arachnophobia – the fear of spiders – almost always makes the top ten, and more often than not, the top five. Some have even argued that the fear of spiders, like the fear of snakes, is an innate fear – people are simply born with it thanks […]The most humane way to capture a spider is to trap it beneath a wide-rimmed glass and then slide a piece of card under the glass to make a lid and contain the spider inside. Then release the spider unharmed into the garden. Do spiders crawl up plugholes? Most species of spider in the UK live for a year or perhaps two. Those that live indoors with fewer predators are more likely to live for two or three years. The garden spider is the UK's most common orb web spider/Credit: Getty How many eyes do spiders have? Bee L., Oxford, G. & Smith, H. 2020. Britain’s spiders (2 nd edn). WILDGuides. Princeton: Princeton University Press. A guide to all 38 of the British families, focusing on spiders that can be identified in the field. Illustrated with a remarkable collection of photographs, it is designed to be accessible to a wide audience, including those new to spider identification. This book combines information on features that can be seen with the naked eye or a hand lens with additional evidence from webs, egg-sacs, behaviour, phenology, habitats and distributions. Individual accounts cover 404 species - all of Britain’s ‘macro’ spiders and the larger money spiders, with the limitations to field identification clearly explained. False widows attract attention as being one of the few British spiders capable of delivering a venomous bite. However, they will only do so if they are trapped or squashed, often in clothing. Reports of false widow spiders continue to rise. The term false widow actually describes several species of spider, but the one that gains the most attention is Steatoda nobilis, the noble false widow spider.

Autumn is the best season to appreciate spiders, when seasonal dew turns garden webs into a glittering display.

Gnaphosidae - Ground spiders

Spiders are also unique in the way they travel and disperse. They do this by ‘ballooning’ – aerial dispersal through the spinning of silk which is caught up by rising air currents on warm days following cold weather. The spider positions itself at a high point, such as the top of a grass stem or a fence post, so that it is exposed to air currents and spins strands of silk from its spinnerets at the tip of the abdomen. Some of this silk may be caught up in the breeze and the spider ‘takes off’. Adult money spiders are light enough to be carried for some distance, in other families of larger spiders it is the immature stages (spiderlings) that balloon. Ballooning was noted by Charles Darwin when he observed silken threads in the rigging of HMS Beagle when some 60 miles off the Argentinian coast – ‘I repeatedly observed the same kind of small spider, either when placed or having crawled on some little eminence, elevate its abdomen, send forth a thread, and then sail away horizontally, but with a rapidity which was quite unaccountable.’ It also explains why some of the first organisms recorded on a newly emerged volcanic island, such as Anak Krakatau, are spiders ballooning in from the nearest mainland.

Roberts, M. J. 1995. Collins field guide: spiders of Britain and northern Europe. London: HarperCollins. Mike Roberts re-drew all the pedipalps and epigynes and repainted the colour plates for this single-volume field guide. The species coverage differs from the “Big Roberts” in that a small number of additional species from the adjacent continent are also described. Only a relatively few Linyphiidae or money spiders species (around 40) with a distinctive abdominal pattern, some of which can be recognised using a hand lens, are included. This major identification guide to 450 species of spider is designed for easy use. Each species is described in detail and illustrated in colour, including common colour variants and differences between the sexes. General family features are also described, with information on behaviour and web-making, including a key to spiders’ webs. This well-illustrated guide includes all of the 34 families known to occur in Britain. Two identification keys are presented. The first uses morphological characters that are visible under low-power magnification; the second key, a tabular guide, includes a range of behavioural and ecological characters. Sections on spider morphology, biology, ecology and a glossary are also provided. However, the turn to colder and wetter weather will stop insects flying and stop the garden spiders feeding. False widow spidersThis Opticron Hand Lens contains a high quality 23mm doublet lens, made of glass and provides excellent distortion-free magnification. The 10x magnification is recommended for general observations and this magnifier is the one most commonly recommended for all types of fieldwork. What to look for: The goldenrod crab spider has some colour variation, appearing white, yellow or green, They often have red lines on either side of their abdomen. Their abdomen is bulbous and their front legs have a crab-like appearance, hence their name. The female is much larger than the male. No. They occasionally fall into sinks and baths and then cannot climb up the steep, smooth sides. How long do spiders live? Spiders are in the news again. It happens this time every year. Why? Because now is the time for spiders, in their more-or-less annual life cycle, to reach maturity – in other words, their maximum adult size. And yes, some of them can seem very big. They especially grow large when they have had plenty to eat and, being insect predators, they have grown fat on the full and wholesome menu of all those flies and bugs that nice, warm, sunny 2014 has delivered in such abundance.

It’s simply a matter of understanding – fear often comes from ignorance, and the best antidote to ignorance is knowledge. And when it comes to acquiring a knowledge of spiders – at least those of Great Britain – it’s dashedly to find a more informative and accessible book about them than Britain’s Spiders from the Princeton University Press WILDGuides series. In this article, we’ll show you several fairly common species that you may find in your garden or local green space. Garden Spider or Cross Orbweaver ( Araneus diadematus) You may notice more spiders appearing in autumn and winter - but why?/Credit: Getty What attracts spiders to the house in autumn Love them or loathe them, many garden spiders may be found inside the house as autumn progresses. If you're not keen on spiders, the smell of citrus such as lemon or orange is thought to repel them in a wildlife-friendly way.

Cybaeidae - Water spider

Jones, D., Ledoux, J-C. & Emerit, M. 2001. Guide des araignées et des opilions d’Europe. Lonay, Switzerland: Delachaux et Niestlé. Warm weather contributes to more spider sightings, but this doesn't necessarily mean more spiders, says Hine, who spent many years dealing with the Museum’s spider identification requests. Britain’s only subaquatic spider is reddish brown and grey, streaked, but appears silver because of an air bubble over its abdomen. It makes an air-filled silk-stranded diving bell in pond and stream weeds. Head and body 15mm. False widow ( Steatoda nobilis) According to the National History Museum, the false widow spider was first recorded in Britain in the 1870s, 'likely a stowaway on cargo ships from its native Madeira and Canary Islands.'/Credit: Getty It makes me think how hard have we looked for it on our coasts? Have we been looking hard enough?” said Waite, who believes the spider could be more widespread than people think.