UK Spider Bites

[Entorien_Scriber]

My Mother handed me a copy of the Guardian today with a bit of a wince. She hates spiders and there was a huge picture of a False Widow on one page! What interested me was the list of 14 spiders in the UK said to bite.

Tube web spider
False widow spider
Woodlouse spider
Walnut orb-weaver spider
False widow or cellar spider
Lace weaver spider
Black lace weaver spider
Mouse spider
Rustic wolf spider
Bark sac spider
Stone spider
Cross or garden spider
Bruennichi's Argiope
Money spider


Some of these I already knew about, but I've never heard of a Money Spider being able to bite someone! Anyone know if this is true? What classifies as a biting spider? I mean, does it need to be venomous, or just be able to go through human skin?

Plus there are two on here that definately are not native, the False Widow and the Argiope. My Mother's response was to state that now she would squash any spider she sees, which she does already no matter how many times I ask her not to. I just hope this doesn't lead to even more people being far too paranoid about spiders.

[jaguarondi]

I suspect the article used this NHM web page on spider bites as its source of information -
UK spider bites | Natural History Museum
There they actually give a particular species name to the money spider

[dmclean2]

Check this one out guys,
Duncan

Deadly Widow Weaves Web Across Britain - Yahoo! News UK

[No.9 Spider]

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

[Meta menardi]

I would like to have a meeting of all the people in this country who have been bitten by spiders. Probably a back room in a pub would do. I would like then to have a commitee formed of all those who have suffered pain and inconvenience, to meet in the kitchen. Plenty of room there. We could then have a meeting of all the people who have been seriously inconvenienced by spider bites ( probably letting off the woman from Egremont who had an allergic reaction to a spider bite.) We could hold that in the phone box outside, I would think.

I grab spiders, pick them up capture them to examine them because I am interested in them. I also work in a plant nursery, and pick up piles of pots, plant materials, plant trays and so on. I see loads of spiders, they run all over me, I surprise them, we have cups of tea together and never, not once, not even counting all the other people I work with, have any of us been bitten. I would say the same thing about bees, wasps and the oh so dangerous centipede. Maybe we don't smell right.

Don't worry, you are safe.

[Meta menardi]

Originally Posted by No.9 Spider

complained of being bitten by large numbers of this tiny linyphiid spider, resulting in local redness and swelling (Duffey and Green, 1975).[/b]

No.9 Spider

Dufffey is a very well respected arachnologist, but, like you, I aave always thought this was a strange report/ occurence. I have wondered if some localised irritation could arise from sewage bugs ( there's scientific for you) at the site of any minor abrasion could explain this. Probably never know now without some workers, a sewage farm, some spiders and a control or two site for the experiment. Anyone want to do a grant application?

[Meta menardi]

Originally Posted by Entorien_Scriber

Tube web spider
False widow spider
Woodlouse spider
Walnut orb-weaver spider
False widow or cellar spider
Lace weaver spider
Black lace weaver spider
Mouse spider
Rustic wolf spider
Bark sac spider
Stone spider
Cross or garden spider
Bruennichi's Argiope
Money spider

What a charming list of names. Whilst I understand why these names are being invented, it just means that most people don't really know which spider is meant by, for eaxample, mouse spider; stone spider; Rustic wolf spider. One of the advantages of using binomial latin names is that a little knowledge goes a long way. maculata means spotty (or something very close), and this applies form spiders to plants to darn nearly everything. Alba is white, and that applies throughout the spectrum of taxonomy. I am a non-academic flaneur (one who wanders about town looking at things) and I love words, so perhaps I am prejudiced.

Walnut orb-weaver spider? My old friend Nuctenae umbratica to those who don't have a walnut tree.

Grumpy day today.

[Action_Man]

If you try and eradicate all the spiders from your home, it will surely be over-run by less welcome visitors, i have two Tegenaria near my back door, one on each side, and in the door crack i have Amaurobius, and i think there doing a great job ...

[Entorien_Scriber]

Originally Posted by Action_Man

If you try and eradicate all the spiders from your home, it will surely be over-run by less welcome visitors, i have two Tegenaria near my back door, one on each side, and in the door crack i have Amaurobius, and i think there doing a great job ...

A friend of mine used to get a lot of Craneflies in his old house, until I told him to stop 'cleaning' away the spider webs from his open kitchen windows. The result was a dramatic drop in the amount of flies getting in, and some very large spiders.

For the same reason I get very few flies in my own home, and the only thing that crawls across my carpet is the occasional spider.

[Entorien_Scriber]

Originally Posted by Meta menardi

What a charming list of names. Whilst I understand why these names are being invented, it just means that most people don't really know which spider is meant by, for eaxample, mouse spider; stone spider; Rustic wolf spider. One of the advantages of using binomial latin names is that a little knowledge goes a long way. maculata means spotty (or something very close), and this applies form spiders to plants to darn nearly everything. Alba is white, and that applies throughout the spectrum of taxonomy. I am a non-academic flaneur (one who wanders about town looking at things) and I love words, so perhaps I am prejudiced.

Walnut orb-weaver spider? My old friend Nuctenae umbratica to those who don't have a walnut tree.

Grumpy day today.

Agreed. Especially if you realise there are two spiders on that list called the 'False Widow'...