STW spiderologists- what are these bad boys?

Found them in a manhole at work.

Definitely spiders. hTh

Nope.?

Red backs or relatives of.

They don’t look like the pictures of red backs I can find, no stripe on the back.

Can you post some higher resolution photos?
The thumbnails are too small.

Sorry Roper that’s testing my IT skills too much! They were taken on a mobile and uploaded to Flickr, I’ve no idea why they are only thumbnails.

At a guess I would say Meta menardi or a cave spider. They are common in very dark spaces through most of Europe. They have quite a strong thread and tend to hang their egg sacks from a ceiling. So if you see white cotton ball like things hanging down , that’s what they are.
I’ve found them to be quite docile but wouldn’t play with them as they do have largish jaws.

See if these look right
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=meta+menardi&biw=1280&bih=856&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=qiTFVKGjNMn9UOLaguAH&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ

Can you post some higher resolution photos?

The second thumbnail is clickable.

Cheers Roper some of those images look like the same creature, hopefully you should be able to see the second image now and that shows the cotton ball exactly as you explain it.

I’m no expert but is the second one a False Widow?

Orb weaver spider Meta bourneti?
Quite rare depending on where you are (BBC news)

image (1) by Kerv F[/url], on Flickr

Bigger version of the second image. They were both in the same manhole at work, just outside Milton Keynes. There were a number of the cotton wool balls in the manhole. They looked a lot like the ones in your link too timba, and about the same size. Normally in pitch black with the lid on the manhole.

I’m no expert, but apparently you need to be to tell Meta bourneti and Meta menardi ^^ apart

BAS contacts