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Redback spider: |
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Princess_Venom Member Joined: 18 Jul 2006 No. of posts: 11  View other posts by Princess_Venom |
Posted: 18 Jul 2006 I was out by my abandoned rabbit hutch last night and this (link) http://misheli.image.pbase.com/u42/gehyra/large/27586713.Reb ack.jpg crawled out towards me. Not that exact spider but a 'carbon copy' of it. I thought it was a black widow, and shouted to my father who ordered that I kill it (I wanted to catch it, but I'm a little scared of spiders) Sadly, I did squash it.. only to later try and find out what it was on the internet as I'd never seen a British spider like that before. I'm pretty certain it was a redback. An aussie spider... a venomous aussie spider... black, with the distinct red hourglass on the top of it's abdomen. How the hell did this end up in my garden? I'm in Berkshire, Maidenhead to be precise. Anyone else seen these in the UK?
Edit to add: I think it was a juvenille... as the red hourglass had some white around it, and after searching the net a little more, I found out that juvies have white outlines on their red hourglasses.. do you think the parents are out there somewhere? |
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David Bird Forum Specialist Joined: 17 Feb 2003 No. of posts: 515  View other posts by David Bird |
Posted: 18 Jul 2006 I have collected N.American Black Widows from Supermarkets from Grape consignments in the past that supposedly originated in California but never seen or heard of any from Australia. There is always the chance with various items being imported by air that any invertebrate that lives in close contact with people or their crops could be imported at some time or the other. If you are certain that the spider did have the stripe along the abdomen and not around the anterior part of the abdomen, which is where it is in Steatoda which is found in certain areas of the U.K. then it may be worth making enquiries with your neighbours as to if any of them have recently had anything from Australia and also enquire at your local council environmental health dept. who would probably like to be informed and may have some information. The Invertebrate house at London Zoo would probably be another place to ask as thye would be the people that would most probably get any enquiry from your area or may know if they have been found before. It is a pity you did not get a photograph of the specimen first or carefuly and safely trap it in a jar for a certain identification. David British Herpetological Society Librarian and member of B.H.S Conservation Committee. Self employed Herpetological Consultant and Field Worker. |
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-LAF Senior Member Joined: 03 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 317 View other posts by -LAF |
Posted: 18 Jul 2006 Is there ANYTHING left of the spider to photograph? If you can give any other details such as its size that could help too. The red-back would be an extremely unlikely species to end up here. As David says, American widow spiders occasionally turn up with grapes from California but I've never heard of a redback making it top the UK. That said, they've established themselves in Japan now. The fact that the spider was wandering about rather than sitting in a web does make me think it's probably not a widow spider of any sort. There are a numebr of British species that could possibly match the description, such as the Nursery Web Spider (below), which is highly variable in colour but sounds superficially similar to what you describe. Without a picture though, it's hard to be sure. Incidently, the red markings on the Redbacks back aren't usually hour glass shaped, although the markings on the underside of some other widow spiders are. Lee.
Hotlinked from www.naturefg.com (C) Dragisa Savic Lee Fairclough |
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Princess_Venom Member Joined: 18 Jul 2006 No. of posts: 11 View other posts by Princess_Venom |
Posted: 18 Jul 2006 I shall ask my neighbours about if they have had anything come from australia recently. I know my neighbours family is emigrating there soon, and maybe they've had things posted from there? I really wish I could have caught it, but in the panic of thinking it was a widow I squashed it. I went out earlier to try and find more/it's remains but I couldn't find anything. Just webs... is it possible it could have come from a web to the ground?.. it was crawling when I saw it, and there are many webs inside the rabbit hutch when I found it. I'll try and describe it in a bit more detail to give some idea of what it was.. it was about 1cm long and wide, jet black, almost a shiney black, and had it's hourglass on it's abdomen, sloping slightly towards the back, but mostly on the top of it. It was a bright red hourglass, and had specks of white around the edges of it forming a king of outline. It's abdomen was quite big in comparison with the rest of it's body, and rounded. It's legs were reasonably long, and stuck out quite far. Can't really describe any kind of web it may have belonged to, as the rabbit hutch has lots of webs in it, webs in corners, on the ceilings, spanning across to the floor, across the door, etc.etc. Dunno if it's relevant at all, but my rabbit got ill and died a few weekends ago?
..That nursery web spider is scary! |
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David Bird Forum Specialist Joined: 17 Feb 2003 No. of posts: 515 View other posts by David Bird |
Posted: 18 Jul 2006 Your description is more like a Black Widow than anything else shiny black longish legs, large abdomen in comparisson to the rest of the body. The web is usually an untidy affair in a corner of something like your rabbit hutch, a cupboard, under a shelf, in a shed or pile of logs etc. At that size would be a female, would be worth looking to see if there are any egg sacs in the web about the size of the abdomen made of silk and dirty white. If there is get a few of them to London Zoo so they can be hatched and identified and destroy the rest. You never know if this was the original that was imported and had already mated or the progeny of an import which may have mated with one of its siblings. David British Herpetological Society Librarian and member of B.H.S Conservation Committee. Self employed Herpetological Consultant and Field Worker. |
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Princess_Venom Member Joined: 18 Jul 2006 No. of posts: 11 View other posts by Princess_Venom |
Posted: 18 Jul 2006 [QUOTE=David Bird]Your description is more like a Black Widow than anything else shiny black longish legs, large abdomen in comparisson to the rest of the body. The web is usually an untidy affair in a corner of something like your rabbit hutch, a cupboard, under a shelf, in a shed or pile of logs etc. At that size would be a female, would be worth looking to see if there are any egg sacs in the web about the size of the abdomen made of silk and dirty white. If there is get a few of them to London Zoo so they can be hatched and identified and destroy the rest. You never know if this was the original that was imported and had already mated or the progeny of an import which may have mated with one of its siblings. I shall get my boyfriend to go out and have a look in the hutch later tonight. I'm bad enough looking at them on the floor let alone how loud I'd scream if I poked my head into a web! Thanks for your help, I shall let you know if we find any more/eggs |
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-LAF Senior Member Joined: 03 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 317 View other posts by -LAF |
Posted: 18 Jul 2006 Yeah, your description is pretty much spot on for a Widow. A remarkably cool find if it is! If you can get your boyfriend out spider hunting with a torch when it's dark then it's worth a good luck in any rabbit hutches, shed, greensouses .etc Let us know how you get on! Lee. Lee Fairclough |
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Morpheus Senior Member Joined: 30 Apr 2006 No. of posts: 54  View other posts by Morpheus |
Posted: 30 Jul 2006 Im sure once on a documentary i heard that we had black widows Gloucestershire`s first exotic pet show! http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/general-herp-chat/320967-glou cestershire-reptile-show-2010-a.html |
- Redback spider |
