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Comments & ID Thoughts
Spider was found with 3 others when turning over a 4' x 8' insulation board in a construction yard in North Wales. This part of the yard had seen very little use in the last few years. The spider, to me, seemed to have a foot span of about 2".
Trying to zoom in and get a still my bug identifying app claims its a Western Black Widow?
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Sep 18, 2020
- Photographed: Sep 18, 2020
- Spider: Unidentified
- Location: Wrexham, United Kingdom
- Spotted Outdoors: Under rock, log, or debris
- Found in web?: No
- Attributes:
That claim is hardly tenable since the Western Black Widow (Latrodectus hesperus) is only found in North America. No spider from the genus Latrodectus is present in your country, actually.
https://araneae.nmbe.ch/search/gen/449?lang=en
Having said that, this spider belongs to the same family as the Widow Spiders, but the genus is different: Steatoda, commonly known as False Widows. This one might be Steatoda grossa. Spiders from this genus aren’t dangerous to humans, anyway.
To be fair Von its not a great still so I can forgive the apps mistake. I considered Streatoda but the described typical size didn’t fit with what I saw.
Having done a little more research I’m 90% confident it’s a Cave Spider, Meta Sp. (Menardi/Bourneti – both found throughout the UK) . Size, behaviour, colouring, locale match. Apparently Cave Spiders aren’t uncommon here but because of their typical behaviour and habitat remain greatly unnoticed. This is certainly my first experience.
Appreciate your input, I’m finding this pretty interesting.
Well done! I’d never have thought of Meta sp. 🙂