Britain's Spiders (WILDGuides): A Field Guide - Fully Revised and Updated Second Edition: 77 (WILDGuides of Britain & Europe)

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With warmer weather, we keep our doors and windows open longer into spider season, and let more of the wandering males in.

Jones, D. 1983. The Country Life guide to spiders of Britain and northern Europe. Littlehampton: Littlehampton Book Services Ltd. Out of print. Spider bites are quite rare, so there is generally no cause for concern if you see spiders in your home. I felt sure that I should be able to go progress further with identification in the field and that even where spiders couldn’t be identified to species – as I knew would most often be the case – it should nearly always be possible to identify them to family level and frequently to genus too. For beginners or indeed anyone who does not already own a copy of this guide it is a must have volume that provides a comprehensive and easy to use introduction to this fascinating group. The authors are to be congratulated on improving an already excellent guide and producing a gateway to what was once perceived as a difficult and demanding group."—Peter Smithers, Antenna Bee L., Oxford, G. & Smith, H. 2020. Britain’s spiders (2 nd edn). WILDGuides. Princeton: Princeton University Press. A guide to all 38 of the British families, focusing on spiders that can be identified in the field. Illustrated with a remarkable collection of photographs, it is designed to be accessible to a wide audience, including those new to spider identification. This book combines information on features that can be seen with the naked eye or a hand lens with additional evidence from webs, egg-sacs, behaviour, phenology, habitats and distributions. Individual accounts cover 404 species - all of Britain’s ‘macro’ spiders and the larger money spiders, with the limitations to field identification clearly explained.A guide to spider families, based on features recognizable in the field, focussing on body shape and other characteristics, as well as separate guides to webs and egg-sacs

Love them or loathe them, many garden spiders may be found inside the house as autumn progresses. If you're not keen on spiders, the smell of citrus such as lemon or orange is thought to repel them in a wildlife-friendly way. Identifying spiders can often be difficult, as they are very small, elusive, and many species resemble one another. The colouration and pattern of a spider can be a useful way to identify them, as well as other key features such as the structure of their webs. In some cases, it is necessary to take a closer look at the genitalia under a microscope, as this can be the only way to confidently identify certain species. You can also use your location as a clue, as some species are more likely to be found in certain parts of the UK. A few years later I was confident that I could identify the vast majority of specimens that came my way with the aid of my microscope and the excellent literature available (mainly the three volume Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland by Michael Roberts). But while helping out at a couple of BioBlitzes, I became painfully aware of a considerable gap in my identification skills; some species whose genitalia I knew intimately remained a mystery to me in the field! It was a real barrier to illustrating the diversity of form, biology and ecology of living animals and inspiring budding spider enthusiasts. This is a guide that will revolutionise the study of British spiders, allowing confident field identification of many species and encouraging a new cohort of natural historians to take a closer look at these extraordinary creatures." Introductory chapters on the biology of spiders, and where, when and how to find them, including equipment needed in thefield

When is UK spider season?

These scissor action Bug Tongs are the perfect way for children to collect larger insects and bugs which cannot easily be caught using a pooter. The Museum's Identification and Advisory Service gets a lot of reports of house spiders, the generic name given to a group of large, long-legged spiders in the groups Tegenaria and Eratigena. Males can have a leg span up to 120 millimetres, and they are usually brown and hairy with dull stripes on the body. Spiders that are not UK species are occasionally found in imported fruit such as grapes or bananas; these can include species that are more seriously venomous. This is a guide that will revolutionise the study of British spiders, allowing confident field identification of many species and encouraging a new cohort of natural historians to take a closer look at these extraordinary creatures. The authors are to be congratulated on a the completion of a herculean task that has made spiders accessible to a wider audience." ---Peter Smithers, Antenna: Journal of the Royal Entomological Society Introductory chapters on the biology of spiders, and where, when and how to find them, including equipment needed in the field

House spiders are not as common as they used to be - homes are now better sealed and central heating and more disturbance makes them dry and unwelcoming to Tegenaria and Eratigena. Where the hand-lens symbol is used, it would be useful to have an explicit indication of what should be looked for with the lens. I suspect that it may currently often be used to indicate that more caution and circumspection is required when looking at all the morphological features described, but this should be made clear. The most humane way to capture a spider is to trap it beneath a wide-rimmed glass and then slide a piece of card under the glass to make a lid and contain the spider inside. Then release the spider unharmed into the garden. Do spiders crawl up plugholes?The stand-out feature of these guides is the generous layout and spacing of the species accounts afforded by the format. . . . It engages, inspires, and enables spiders to be named . . . I strongly suspect that many arachnologists of the future will have been inspired by their encounter with this field guide." ---Paul Tinsley-Marshall, British Wildlife A complete list of the spiders recorded in Britain, indicating the ease of identification as well as rarity and conservationstatus