Britain`s Spiders – A Field Guide (WILDGuides of Britain & Europe, 21)

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House spiders are not as common as they used to be - homes are now better sealed and central heating and more disturbance makes them dry and unwelcoming to Tegenaria and Eratigena. The great fox-spider likes warmer climates and is more common on the European mainland, particularly on coastal sand dunes in Holland and Denmark. Up-to-date distribution maps, and charts showing adult seasonality Introductory chapters on the biology of spiders, and where, when and how to find them, including equipment needed in the field Roberts, M. J. 1995. Collins field guide: spiders of Britain and northern Europe. London: HarperCollins. Mike Roberts re-drew all the pedipalps and epigynes and repainted the colour plates for this single-volume field guide. The species coverage differs from the “Big Roberts” in that a small number of additional species from the adjacent continent are also described. Only a relatively few Linyphiidae or money spiders species (around 40) with a distinctive abdominal pattern, some of which can be recognised using a hand lens, are included. It’s simply a matter of understanding – fear often comes from ignorance, and the best antidote to ignorance is knowledge. And when it comes to acquiring a knowledge of spiders – at least those of Great Britain – it’s dashedly to find a more informative and accessible book about them than Britain’s Spiders from the Princeton University Press WILDGuides series.

False widow spider bites have been a hot topic in recent years, along with reports of bumper crops of house and garden spiders, and news that city spiders are getting fatter. Spider season: looking for love Bee L., Oxford, G. & Smith, H. 2020. Britain’s spiders (2 nd edn). WILDGuides. Princeton: Princeton University Press. A guide to all 38 of the British families, focusing on spiders that can be identified in the field. Illustrated with a remarkable collection of photographs, it is designed to be accessible to a wide audience, including those new to spider identification. This book combines information on features that can be seen with the naked eye or a hand lens with additional evidence from webs, egg-sacs, behaviour, phenology, habitats and distributions. Individual accounts cover 404 species - all of Britain’s ‘macro’ spiders and the larger money spiders, with the limitations to field identification clearly explained.

Love them or loathe them, many garden spiders may be found inside the house as autumn progresses. If you're not keen on spiders, the smell of citrus such as lemon or orange is thought to repel them in a wildlife-friendly way.

What can you tell us about the different kinds of webs that can be found in the UK and the species that they indicate? Warm weather contributes to more spider sightings, but this doesn't necessarily mean more spiders, says Hine, who spent many years dealing with the Museum’s spider identification requests. You may notice more spiders appearing in autumn and winter - but why?/Credit: Getty What attracts spiders to the house in autumn Spiders are also unique in the way they travel and disperse. They do this by ‘ballooning’ – aerial dispersal through the spinning of silk which is caught up by rising air currents on warm days following cold weather. The spider positions itself at a high point, such as the top of a grass stem or a fence post, so that it is exposed to air currents and spins strands of silk from its spinnerets at the tip of the abdomen. Some of this silk may be caught up in the breeze and the spider ‘takes off’. Adult money spiders are light enough to be carried for some distance, in other families of larger spiders it is the immature stages (spiderlings) that balloon. Ballooning was noted by Charles Darwin when he observed silken threads in the rigging of HMS Beagle when some 60 miles off the Argentinian coast – ‘I repeatedly observed the same kind of small spider, either when placed or having crawled on some little eminence, elevate its abdomen, send forth a thread, and then sail away horizontally, but with a rapidity which was quite unaccountable.’ It also explains why some of the first organisms recorded on a newly emerged volcanic island, such as Anak Krakatau, are spiders ballooning in from the nearest mainland. Britain’s only subaquatic spider is reddish brown and grey, streaked, but appears silver because of an air bubble over its abdomen. It makes an air-filled silk-stranded diving bell in pond and stream weeds. Head and body 15mm. False widow ( Steatoda nobilis) According to the National History Museum, the false widow spider was first recorded in Britain in the 1870s, 'likely a stowaway on cargo ships from its native Madeira and Canary Islands.'/Credit: Getty

Corinnidae - Ant-like sac spiders

What to look for: The goldenrod crab spider has some colour variation, appearing white, yellow or green, They often have red lines on either side of their abdomen. Their abdomen is bulbous and their front legs have a crab-like appearance, hence their name. The female is much larger than the male. Of the 33 spider families represented in Britain, 21 are featured in this chart. The guide includes colour illustrations and a table with identification features, habitat and methods of prey capture for the 40 spiders featured in the chart.