a friend has photoed these( two seperate " sightings" and labeled it as the false widow but i dont know if it is, you hear so many people saying that they have seen them and its getting absurd now, understand that people may have concerns but its over the top when every spider they see is a false widow!! obviously if it is then ill stand corrected! can i have as many suggestions as possible please? many thanks in advance
forgot to add the two " sightings" were roughly 10 miles apart in thanet, kent
This message was edited Oct 19, 2013 1:28 AM
It's a harmless orb weaver of some type, maybe a furrow orb weaver or a missing sector orb weaver. In spite of the scare stories about false widows in the recent press, those spiders are not dangerous to humans, although they can gave a very painful bite (personal experience).
http://www.uksafari.com/steatodagrossa.htm
many thanks for that, i didnt think they were, is your assesment 100% certain? from what ive seen you clearly know your spiders! i hate spiders to be honest but have been reading up on them to try to combat my fears so can understand peoples hysteria, but in fairness to the 8 legged little critters its not fair labeling weird looking ones that bite, also doesnt help the general public when people say they have been sighted!
I am 100 % certain that it is an orb weaver, but I cannot be absolutely certain of its specific identity because of the image quality. IMHO, there is far too much misleading/just plain wrong information on spiders (as well as some other arthropods) both in the general press as well as the internet...
