Can Anyone Identify This Spider From a Description?

reply to post by Insomniac


what you may have seen could very well have been an average everyday species of spider who is just a little different looking from the rest due to mutation I am not a spider expert but I have seen my fair share and have never heard of that particular type of spider. Although the links that have been posted on here are mostly of European spiders and if you think that it came in on a fruit shipment than I would check the spiders of South America.

reply to post by LAUGHING-CAT


Ugh. I had a mystery bite many years ago in Ca. The docs thought it was Lymes from a tick due to the red and purple "bulls-eye rash" that covered my whole thigh- it had just started out as a little hole. Well, they gave me a huge dose of tetracycline (i am allergic to penicillin) that I took for 2 weeks. The rash went away, but I had a lump for many months and was not really back to normal health until about 6 months later. My tests for Lymes came back negative, so the Dr figured it was a brown recluse through process of elimination I guess. I have never had a bite make me so sick. Im allergic to bees, and I will take a bee sting before a spider bite any day. Im am even more arachnaphobic now because of it. I have a cat who eats bugs and spiders she is very pampered in my house.

Originally posted by IronEddie
I beleive this is the spider




The white stripe and red to black legs are there, is this the one you saw?

Almost, but not quite. The one I saw only had two red legs, the black was much blacker (although that could be just the photograph) and the white spripe was much thicker. I don't think the head was that broad either.

[edit on 14/6/08 by Insomniac]

Originally posted by makeitso
False widow may be right.



news.bbc.co.uk...

Until recently, Steatoda Nobilis, a close relative of the notorious Black Widow, was native to Dorset.

But it can now be found in parts of Devon, Cornwall and Essex.

www.dailymail.co.uk...

or some type of Steatoda anyway

bugguide.net...

Could be - none of the colours match exactly, but lots of people on this thread have told me that colours can vary greatly through mutation. The only doubt I have though is to do with the size. The one I saw was definitely 2- 2.5 inches incuding the legs.

[edit on 14/6/08 by Insomniac]

for some reason i keep thinking you saw a jumping spider

reply to post by miguelbmx


I can see why you think that, but jumping spiders (at least in the UK) are quite small. They also have relatively short, strong looking legs (must be all that jumping). Wheres the one I saw had long slender legs.

[edit on 16/6/08 by Insomniac]

May not help to identify this spider, but if you want to see some weird shtuff:
www.liveleak.com...

I noticed the picture of a redback posted, it doesn't do them justice.

I had one of them crawl out of my schoolbag once and no one sat next to me for a week.

Very glossy black with a bright red patch on the back. You wouldn't like to be bitten by one of them.

I remember a few years back there was a news story where someone was having a shower and was bitten by a funnel web spider of the local variety in Sydney. They died shortly afterwards.

I don't mind spiders too much but I hate scorpions. They aren't common where I live luckily.

Scary stuff! I had a huntsman spider drop on my neck once too. That definetely sucked!

[edit on 17-6-2008 by seenitall]