House Spider Panic
Last night there was much consternation and gnashing of teeth from the front room as my daughter settled down to watch Celebrity Big Brother as a large spider crawled up the wall in front of her. I springing immediately into action, but only after I had taken a few photos, but the pressure was definitely on to "get it out of here!". It is one of three or four possible Tenegaria species, though there are 11 species that occur in the UK and Northern Europe (1). All of which are very similar and can only be identified to species by genitalia. With no microscope of any idea of what I should be looking all I can do for now is get it to genus, confirmed via iSpot. However, judging by the palps it is a female. The most likely species it could are: Tegeneria domestica (Common House Spider), body size up to 10mm. This is perhaps the most common but smallest of there species. Although virtually reliant on people's houses, this species can be found in cave entrances and inside hollo...