fancy getting into true spiders?
- Thread starter jb92
- Start date
I have a bit of a story i'm about to recount, let me just gather my thoughts a second, so brace yourselves... this is gonna be a long one.
Last year I was working behind the counter at my old job... when I lifted a bag I found what I can only describe as a Segestria Florentina or the tube web spider that was about 50mm leg span with a 23-24mm body, it was uniform black and dark brown, but it lacked the green iridescence on the jaws so I couldn't be sure if that what it was.
It seemed to have forward protruding jaws of the Mygalomorphidae which close together like a true spider I believe they are of the Araneomorphae order.
I do have a video I took of it eating knocking around, so i'll have to retrieve that so I can see if you guys can confirm thats what it was.
Definately the most impressive species I have found here in the UK, it reared up fangs exposed and attacked and killed anything I placed in it's tub with reltive ease including a large house spider (Tegenaria Gigantea) which had a similar leg span but a smaller body, looked very much like a variant of the funnel web spider in a smaller package.
[Unrelated] The largest female Tegenaria Gigantea I have captured and accurately measured was 65mm leg span and a 20-22mm body and that was a monster in terms of legs and size (unless you count the 80mm leg span of males I have found in the past).
(Back to the encounter) Anyway it was found in the shop I worked underneath some bags that were transferred in from Basingstoke, so I believe it must be a native species that lives over here but this was the first time I had seen or heard of it.
My co-worker said in amazement "is that a tarantula! its f***ing huge
" I said no it's just a huge native spider (initially I thought it was an overgrown black stone spider, the kind that crawl on your walls) being the big bugman that I am! I scooped it up and let it crawl from my hand up to my arm and I really could really appreciate this monster up close, with a large chunky body and jutting chelicerae size so I thought to myself this is something completely different I'm gonna have to aquire this specimen and check it out on the internet.I placed it in one of the bags and left it outside the shop in a flower pot (it was raining down heavy but the bag stayed intact.) because no one wanted me to keep it in the store.
I picked it up after work and took it home with me.
The huge female died a few months later but it did lay an egg sack and the spiderlings eventually hatched, I looked after them in the tub for a few weeks but I was going on holiday and I stupidly placed a sack of the false widow spider, another non native-native species we get that is also impressive for sustenance while I was away (I didn't realise they were faster growing and started out larger in life) and when I came back my beloved new aquisitions were all but spun up and sucked dry... I was kicking myself over this, but dam those suckers were slow growing, they only shed once or twice in that time.
Sorry for the uber reply, I just had to recall that little encounter.
-Scolo
---------- Post added at 02:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:16 PM ----------
Here is a crude picture I just quickly drew of the morphology of it, I'll have to see if I can get the video off of my old phone.
Can't remember where the dark browns were.
I'm guessing unless you caught them yourself then none..
-Edit- some sites like virginacheeseman.co.uk get true spider species in, right now she has some huntsman that are 10cm!