Money spider,
Leptohoptrum robustum Body size Female and male 3-4 mm.
Appearance
Tiny. Grey or yellow brown (photo none).
Habitat, range and season
Damp vegetation, widespread in the UK. Throughout the year.
Bite report Workers at a sewage treatment plant complained of being bitten by large numbers of this tiny linyphiid spider, resulting in local redness and swelling (Duffey and Green, 1975). http://www.britishspiders.org.uk/ind...NSYS0000009118
I recall this paragraph from some years ago. The spider was at one time in the
Neriene family and so I assume it must be similar to
Neriene peltata etc?
I personally find it hard to imagine the incident, particularly the spiders biting 'en masse'. I have to remain sceptical on this one. My theory is that dinosaurs are thin at one end....... oops! wrong theory, maybe the real culprit resonsible was a gnat/mosquito population which can be prevalant at such places, but there were the spider present also and were all too easily blamed?
Anyway, in such an environment I would expect redness and swelling from a slight scratch and hardly think that that was down to the spider venom anyway.
Looking at the list it certainly stands out and would be the erroneous one if you had to pick. Anyone know any more details?, as I remember being interested in it some years ago.
Just a thought
No.9 Spider
