Argh! Please help to identify?

MrsB · #1 (**permalink**) 23-12-2009, 11:11 AM

Hello.

I keep a couple of lizards and they eat very large bugs and a couple of times i have seen these bugs dangling from a web under a piece of furniture.

I have tried cleaning it out but the web keeps reappearing so i decided to start feeding the spider instead.

This was all over about the last year or so.

Well i just noticed the web had grown so i figured it was hungry so i got a bug and put it on the web and i saw the spider for the first time - it was monsterous!!!

Here is a pic and it is about the body is about the size of a 1p and the pattern looked a bit like a skull to me.

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...5/IMG_1664.jpg

Can someone please identify it for me?

Jason Green · #2 (**permalink**) 23-12-2009, 11:17 AM

Afternoon Mrs. B, and welcome to WAB

It looks like one of the False Widow spiders to me, which can nip us but only in self-defense - they're fine if not mishandled!

Take care,

Jason

MrsB · #3 (**permalink**) 23-12-2009, 01:36 PM

Hi, thanks for the welcome and the response

Do i need to worry about it reproducing or anything?

It seems to have built a nice little house - a ball of web with a tunnel coming from it - and if i brave sticking my head under i can see a few white blobs on the floor.

I haven't seen another spider or web or anything...

Also, might it be dangerous to a puppy besides the biting? Maybe if the puppy decided to eat the spider?

My husband is wanting to throw it outside but we've just move up north and it's very very cold. I don't want to put it somewhere else in the house because then i don't know where it is anymore.

Thanks

ChrisR · #4 (**permalink**) 23-12-2009, 03:37 PM

I don't think it looks like a False Widow, to me anyway ... body/leg shape doesn't look spindly enough and the web would be all wrong. I am no expert on spiders but I think this is one of those fairly common and variable orb-web spiders that you get around window frames.

Jason Green · #5 (**permalink**) 23-12-2009, 03:45 PM

Perhaps more specifically, I was referring to Steatoda nobilis, see http://www.essexfieldclub.org.uk/cache/bba665cb.jpg

Chris, are you thinking of the Missing-sector Orb-weaver, Zygiella X-notata? See -

ChrisR · #6 (**permalink**) 23-12-2009, 03:51 PM

Hmm, yeah that's what I was meaning ... your Steatoda does look quite similar -would be nice to have a clearer photo of the one in question

No.9 Spider · #7 (**permalink**) 23-12-2009, 09:36 PM

Looks like a female Steatoda nobilis, so treat with respect. Probably travelled North with you. I assume you moved from the around South coast? Shouldn't be a problem for the dog and unless already mated there shouldn't be any offspring. Check for egg sacs mid summer!

No.9 Spider

wildherbalian85 · #8 (**permalink**) 24-12-2009, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by No.9 Spider

Looks like a female Steatoda nobilis, so treat with respect. Probably travelled North with you. I assume you moved from the around South coast? Shouldn't be a problem for the dog and unless already mated there shouldn't be any offspring. Check for egg sacs mid summer!

No.9 Spider

I agree with you on the Species....

... the pattern on its back and the web that it is in all point in the direction of S.Nobilis.