Steatoda grossa?

[ChrisR]

This spider was skulking in a cardboard box in my garage tonight (9th December 2009) in the suburbs of Reading, Berks. It looks very 'false-widow'ish and the closest I can get is Steatoda grossa - am I correct?

Do these have a fairly potent bite, like some of the other Steatoda spp. or are they insignificant on a scale from "hmm, mosquito bite" to "get me to A&E, I think I'm about to pass out from the pain!"

[ChrisR]

PS: I should add that it really is entirely black/very dark brown and the body length is about 1cm.

[No.9 Spider]

Looks good for Steatoda grossa . Just treat with respect they're lovely spiders. Check out the garage for more though!



No.9 Spider

[ChrisR]

Thanks for the confirmation I agree, it is quite striking, being glossy black all over with slightly lighter legs. I had unwittingly made an ideal home for it by stacking a lot of empty boxes together and I found him/her sitting in one of the boxes that I was about to cut up last night for the rubbish. Luckily it looked odd enough for me to box it and take some photos - but also I got a good enough view of it to realize that it wasn't one of the normal house/garage spiders and so I didn't pick it up with my bare hands

I'm tempted to keep it in a terrarium for a little while to watch it make its web but I'll return it to the garage when the weather gets a bit warmer

[Geoff F]

It looks like a female or sub adult male.

[tomorer00]

Well done mate I just found one of these under my settee and it is like U say dark dark brown with a 1 cm body and spindly legs all round like Ur pics. I got to Steodata from some pics of variants and the fact it is a scaffold web builder, which is exactly the kind of web I see, altho the pic of the black grossa on the list looks slightly different (legs were shorter at back.. probably an angle thing). I can see pok-marks on the back and maybe a band on the front of the abdomen too.

Black Widow!! was exactly my thought...

One thing may be of interest. I found a bunch of egg sacks in the same place and left them there because I thought I saw the spider that put them there and it was a cool green one. All these egg sacks are now empty. The spider I found today is a new arrival.

Feel like I shud keep it and put it in my cactus tank....

Note: Its glossy black like said above and it is actually common in the South West where I am. Im near the coast too where they like to live apparantly. Its a fine example (no camera tho )

[someblokedave]

I've got a few of these kicking around my gaff. One in the bathroom, he's been in there more than a year now see video ‪steatoda grossa.wmv‬‏ - YouTube
and just discovered a biggish one in one of those red coloured Yucca type palm trees outside the front of the house and there's at least one in the garage, but I've lost track of that one. There's bloke that lives near me who's a spider expert and he's recorded my first one on a distribution map and that's the only recorded incidence in Essex as far as I know, but it's obvious the place is running alive with them. There's an interesting youtube video with some bloke called vampireguitarist who's got a collection of them and he gives the impression that they're everywhere.

Definitely an interesting spider. Should I spray its web with water as it's in a pretty dry place, or do they get enough fluid from their food supply?

[laneystrider]

I've had these in the bottom of my larder and other cluttered dark places in my xexexexexexexe every since I moved in here, I'm quite near the op in Reading, I'm in Henley on Thames area (they can get into my larder from the garden via an air vent)

I stumbled across this page after finding a steatoda albomaculata in my bathroom sink last night and finding a fantastic webpage of thumbnails of UK spiders also identified the mob of steatoda grossa that live in my xexexexexexexe whilst I was there! I've never handled them as I had a feeling they were a bit 'dodgy'!

I'm a bit of a haven for spiders here, my home is very cluttered and my garden is designed to be a wildlife haven. I am going to start taking photos of them all and sending my recordings to the Spider Recording Scheme

[MattPrince]

Originally Posted by someblokedave

Definitely an interesting spider. Should I spray its web with water as it's in a pretty dry place, or do they get enough fluid from their food supply?

I'd say no, they seem to put up their webs in dry places and can obviously go for long periods without much fluid uptake, or at least get the majority of their fluids from prey.

Originally Posted by laneystrider

I've never handled them as I had a feeling they were a bit 'dodgy'!

I've had a fair sized nobilis running over my hand, whilst I wouldn't recommend deliberately handling them, so long as you don't try and constrain them, or tease them, they are usually very docile and run away from anything bigger than a prey item.

Originally Posted by laneystrider

I'm a bit of a haven for spiders here, my home is very cluttered and my garden is designed to be a wildlife haven. I am going to start taking photos of them all and sending my recordings to the Spider Recording Scheme

Sounds good ~ though be warned that photographs are not enough to identify the majority of spiders accurately to species level, even when they are very good clear macro photographs (in fact even microscope grabs may not be enough as they prefer to have specimens to determine identification accurately).

Cheers,
Matt

Matt