I met this spider whilst working t’other day – it was giving me the eye so I photographed it for posterity.

Any idea what it is – never seen one before? And is it native to North Yorkshire!

BadBoy by Rob Sutherland, on Flickr

(Yes – my Macro photography needs some work! But this was my first attempt on a moving subject!)

False widow of some kind? Roper to the thread 🙂

I think it’s a lady spider, so a widow would be apt 🙂

Missing sector spider Zygiella x-notata?

If it’s up a tree, with blue sky behind it, I’m scared 🙁

Missing sector was my hunch , but could be garden spider in funny light!

If that’s a fallen tree branch by its side, there’s no way I’m visiting North Yorkshire; they probably account for all the missing people reports…

It’s a Yellow Backed North Yorkshire Man Eating spider. See
them a lot round Boroughbridge.

It was a very odd colouring – near black body with a bright yellow stripe down the back – the light is dead flat overcast day with spot on white balance on the camera!

It is, infact, in a sewage treatment plant and the body was only about 8 – 10mm long so I am pretty confident it isn’t a man eater 😉

My guess would be a Zygiella spp of some sort, as been mentioned above. Sometimes when a spider is near a moult it’s colouring will be darker. The light stripe could appear more yellow and Brown’s can appear black. The carapace and pedipalps do look Zygiella.
Did you see any webs near by?

Nope – nothing around.

It just looked a touch unusual, and not something I have seen in the area before! I was wondering if southern species were marching north or something 😉