Weird Spider ID help

[Al Morrey]

Hi all,

This morning my girlfriend, who is quite serious arachnophobic, found a very weird looking spider in the kitchen of our flat which is 6 floors up in the middle of London. In the ensuing panic the spider was unfortunately killed.

Looking at it, it's a beautiful if rather scary looking thing and I'm concerned that, given our location, it may have arrived in the punnet of nectarines nearby on the kitchen surface. To put my girlfriend's mind at rest I thought I'd try and find out what it is and make sure it's not dangerous in any way. So before I go emailing Spanish experts in arachnology I thought I'd see if anyone recognises it as being indigenous to the UK. I'll post a picture later if possible but in the mean time I'll try and describe it...

It's probably about the size of a 2p piece. Its legs and the front part of its body is a blood red and its abdomen is light olive green with no markings of any kind.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Al

[Imaginos]

Although I can't identify the spider from your description, I can assure you that your location is no barrier to British species turning up. The parks and gardens of London are rich spider habitat and six floors up is no height for spiders that are ballooning (trailing a line of silk which lifts them up in air currents), spiders have been spotted ballooning at the top of Everest! Even quite large spiders are able to to this, they would also quite happily climb the side of a building to that height.

[Laurence Clemons]

The most commonly encountered British spider with blood-red legs and front parts is the Woodlouse Spider Dysdera crocata. However I would describe the colour of the abdomen as pink and not olive green. If your specimen is this species beware of handling live specimens; the fangs, which easily pierce the exoskeleton of woodlice, can cause unpleasant injuries.