Help Identifying th...
 

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[Closed] Help Identifying this spider......

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Was at work today and lifted a man hole cover to find this beasty inside:
[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]

It was on it's own under the cover however when we went to the next man hole cover there was about 6 or so just as big in there!

Not one i've seen before and had a quick look and can't find anything that matches.

Any ideas??


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 2:27 pm
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Araneae Robbin, Juvenile?


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 2:32 pm
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If that were anywhere near me it would now be identified as a very flat spider


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 2:34 pm
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not sure i could get close enough to flatten it


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 2:34 pm
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looks a bit like a woodlouse spider in the first photo but not so much in the second.

(What kind of person has spiders in his manhole? 😯 )


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 2:35 pm
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Idenitfy him? His name is Marvin and he's been missing form my garage for a couple of weeks! Come home Marvin, all is forgiven!!


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 2:39 pm
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That's absolutely horrendous. They don't expect you to go down there do they?! 😯


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 2:43 pm
 ski
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Does it jump if you poke it with a stick?

I hate the ones that jump!

I wouldn't go sown their either, its Mum might be down there!

😉


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 2:56 pm
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It probably ate its mum


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:12 pm
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Flip it over with your finger, see if it has any underside markings.

http://www.uksafari.com/spiders.htm


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:12 pm
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Do what with your what? Are you on crack?


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:13 pm
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😆


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:14 pm
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😆 yeah ok, that'd be beyond me too. Bad enough hand-catching the 3" diameter house spiders that constantly charge me across the flat. Poor little things. I've been marking them to see if they return, they never do - so I'm getting 1-2 NEW 3" spiders a day in my flat! Just like this one:
[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:16 pm
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We get loads of tube web spiders in walls of our block of flat - quite scary looking things and quite aggressive apparently!

Thankfully they stay in their webs and don't come indoors so fingers crossed! 🙂

[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:16 pm
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[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:17 pm
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Gary - they're ambush spiders, thats why they seem aggressive. I suspect they'd shat themselves if they realised you were a human.


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:18 pm
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Not before I did FFS


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:19 pm
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I suspect if i was a spider i'd be far from shatting myself if i realised you were a human as 90% of them run away screaming like little girls. In fact i'd probably develop a bit of a god complex


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:20 pm
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Apparently you can tempt them out by tickling the web entrance which is littered with trip wires - mwahahahaa.

*fully awaits don't come crying to me statement from wife when I get bitten though (and apparently they will, up to six hours of pain and shock though not fatal 😯 - in Portishead of all places! )


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:21 pm
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Kneel before me, trembling human, and pass me a fly! On second thoughts sod it, I'll just eat the kids...


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:22 pm
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Come on girls, they're only spidders 🙂 Fight that natural human instinct to run away screaming and hold that spider in your hand. Then admit defeat as it scampers up your arm and into your tshirt sleeve, leaving you spinning and shrieking like a cat in a shower! Been there, done that, lost my cool.


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:25 pm
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i do that when one get's on my trousers when i'm gardening. I think if it made it to my t-shirt i'd be in full on shock


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:26 pm
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😀 I have a mate who's similar. It seems we all have a threshold! I've been known to wake up with them on me and pick them off my chest carefully half asleep, but when clothed it seems somehow wrong that something else should be in your clothes with you!


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:36 pm
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Anything like that in my house sees the sole of a shoe.


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:40 pm
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oddly enough i can't bring myself to kill them


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:41 pm
 ski
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so I guess its not a native species to the UK then?


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:44 pm
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Anything like that in my house sees the sole of a shoe.

Why? Why would you kill them? Spiders are nice. They hurt nobody. I like spiders.


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:45 pm
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I like spiders, wouldnt kill one ever. Just can't see the need and it doesnt fit with a rational response. But people are fairly irrational when suffering with a phobia. I still struggle to see the need for killing it though.


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:48 pm
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I have a healthy regard for spiders and never kill them.


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 3:56 pm
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Spiders are brill!

But apparently the average person eats 8 of them in their lifetime whilst asleep (the person, not the spiders)!


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 4:02 pm
 ski
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ok, out of the 3 posted so fat, I think GaryLake spider would get me running quickest 😉


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 4:06 pm
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looks like a stealth fighter!


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 4:11 pm
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Gary's spider has beautiful mandibles. It's a bit disturbing the way they lurk in their holes, with just their legs sticking out:

[img] [/img]

I had to clear a lod of maggots out of our bin the other day. Much rather have spiders than flies.


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 4:14 pm
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I do like most spiders, but I make an exception for those house spiders that are constructed entirely out of legs.


 
Posted : 01/10/2009 6:29 pm
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Yeah he did jump!!

Luckily we were just looking (following some cables that was going down some pipes) and didn't have to go down or in the holes!!
If I did I think I would of got a flame thrower or something first 😀


 
Posted : 02/10/2009 9:05 am
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I've just taken on the lease of an old country estate sawmill as my new workshop. Its like a scene from Cloverfield in there.


 
Posted : 02/10/2009 9:33 am
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Me Agreeable: that's the ones (well sort of, the brown one's are a smaller but similar spieces), we have about Six around every doorway in the block I live in! They look quite small but we found one that must have outgrown it's hole or something because we saw it on the move (argh huge it was) and the next day there were only two left and lots of empty funnels. 😯


 
Posted : 02/10/2009 10:35 am
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earlier this year I was getting up on a saturday morning and as i had no clean shirts delved into the back of the wardrobe to put on an old one. About 15 minutes later as I'm walking through town with the wife and kids I start getting a little tickle on my shoulder blade, so I scratch it. Tickle gets bigger and my face drops as I realsie THAT SOMETHING IS CRAWLING ACROSS MY BACK. Cue me ripping my shirt off whilst issuing little whimpery noises of terror and watching horrified as a big, black, long legged spider crawls out from the wreckage of my shirt (most likely a big mouse spider).

I turn around to see my wife and kids pointing and laughing at me 😳

I am still an alpha male and all that, i was just worried for the safety of the spider of course.


 
Posted : 02/10/2009 11:11 am
 TimP
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[url= ]MOUSE SPIDER[/url]
OR
[url= ]HOUSE SPIDER[/url]

Not sure which one I would least like to have in my shirt?!?!


 
Posted : 02/10/2009 11:48 am
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we have these
[img] ?t=1254484409[/img]
[i]Macrothele calpeiana[/i]
Lovely little spiders they are too. Though they do have a bit of a temper.


 
Posted : 02/10/2009 11:55 am
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Back to the OP
A friend said it could also be a Meta menardi or European cave spider. I think he is probably right.
[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 02/10/2009 1:32 pm
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Saw some Golden Orb spiders as big as my hand while hiking in Aus last year. Here's a peckish one:

[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 02/10/2009 1:40 pm
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I think you are right Roper, from the description and considering they were in a dark, light free environment they fit the bill!!

Just had the go ahead to do the cabling so the poor guy's gonna have to work down there - think I might take some holiday 😆


 
Posted : 02/10/2009 8:29 pm
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Used to see a lot of those Golden Orb's when I lived in PNG when I was young. Massive webs as well.


 
Posted : 02/10/2009 8:54 pm
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mY 9 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER SAVED A SPIDER FROM THE BATH TWO WEEKS AGO AND IT BIT HER FINGER WE THINK IT WAS A FALSE WIDOW


 
Posted : 02/10/2009 11:05 pm
 Dave
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In Somerset it could also be Meta bourneti


 
Posted : 02/10/2009 11:13 pm