Welcome To
Arachnid Corner
In Britain alone, there are 38 Families of spider and about 130 worldwide. There are also many other arachnids in the world, but they don't fall into the Spider Order. Yet they all come under the same Class, Arachnida. Some of the other examples are the likes of harvestmen and scorpions, along with those annoying little ticks.
Spiders are some of the most fascinating creatures here on Earth. Often they are feared, or viewed as disgusting. Yet without them, this world would be a very unusual and quite frankly, much less interesting place.
In the following informative sections, I will walk you through just how captivating they can be, and how through evolution, has come some of the most adapted and perfect predators to have ever walked the planet.
Identifying Spiders
A World of Web-spinners
Each Family and even Species of spider are different, varying greatly in how they catch food, mate and rear their young.
Focusing on British spider Species I have found, along with information about where to find them, what Family they belong to, or where I have documented them can be found in this section. ​
We will begin by identifying some of the different families of spiders, and work our way through how to identify a spiders binomial name. Then in the following sections I will delve into the habits of some spider species, before finishing with the photo gallery, where you will be able to view detailed photos I have captured along with the spiders binomial name.
I hope you enjoy this section.
The Spider Families in Britain
Agelenidae (Funnelweb spiders)
Amaurobiidae (Laceweb spiders)
Anyphaenidae (Orbweb spiders)
Atypidae (Purseweb spiders)
Cheiracanthiidae (Yellow sac spiders)
Clubionidae (Sac spiders)
Corinnidae (Ant-like sac spiders)
Cybaeidae (Soft spiders)
Dictynidae (Meshweb spiders)
Dysderidae (Woodlouse spiders)
Ersidae (Velvet spiders)
Gnaphosidae (Ground spiders)
Hahniidae (Lesser cobweb spiders)
Linyphiidae (Money spiders)
Liocranidae (Running foliage spiders)
Lycosidae (Wolf spiders)
Mimetidae (Pirate spiders)
Miturgidae (Ghost spiders)
Mysmenidae (Dwarf cobweb spiders)
Nesticidae (Comb-footed cellar spiders)
Oecobiidae (Discweb spiders)
Oonopidae (Goblin spiders)
Oxyopidae (Lynx spiders)
Philodromidae (Running crab spiders)
Pholcidae (Cellar spiders)
Phrurolithidae (Ant-like sac spiders)
Pisauridae (Nurseryweb spiders)
Salticidae (Jumping spiders)
Scytodidae (Spitting spiders)
Segestriidae (Tubeweb spiders)
Sparassidae (Huntsman spiders)
Tetragnathidae (Long-jawed orbweb spider)
Theridiidae (Comb-footed spiders)
Theridiosomatidae (Ray spiders)
Thomisidae (Crab spiders)
Uloboridae (Cribellate orbweb spiders)
Zodariidae (Ant-hunting spiders)
Zoridae (Ghost spiders)
Zoropsidae (False wolf spiders)​​
Agelenidae (Funnelweb spiders)​​​
Anyphaenidae (Orbweb spiders)
Identification of spider families can be fun when you know what you're looking for, and there can be some very simple guides to identification of a family.
Some of the biggest family identifiers is location, shape and web.
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Funnelweb spiders for example, have large horizontal webs with retreats (funnels) in which they hide.
Lycosidae (Wolf spiders)​​​
Clubionidae (Sac spiders)​​​
Wolfspiders are hunters, not using web to catch their prey. Often you will see them scurying around in soil, sand or grass.
They closely rpotect their offspring, carrying their egg sac on their back, and even their live young once they have hatched.
Orbweb spiders create vertical webs, with intricate shapes, just how you would draw a web. Then they sit in the centre and wait, or hide in some foliage at the edge.
They often have large abdomens.
Philodromidae
(Running crab spiders)​​​
Nurseryweb spiders house their young in huge nests, created by joining the tips of vegetation. Then they sit guard. They are very skittish, and relatively striking looking spiders.
Pisauridae (Nurseryweb spiders)​​​
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Salticidae (Jumping spiders)​ ​​
Jumping spiders are usually small, but highly active. They are smart, with great eyesight and as the name suggests, fantastic jumpers.
Their often colourful, and hunt by moving around in vegetation.
When a jumping spider looks at you, it really looks at you.
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Crab spiders are fascinating, and easily identifiable by their crab like movement. They are accomplished hunters with distinctive body shapes.
Thomisidae (Crab spiders)​​​
Binomial naming is a way of naming a species using the genus name along with the identifying species name. This then gives us the name of that particular species.
So within each family of spiders, there are many different genera, which then have many distinct species within it. The binomial name is given with a capital letter at the start (Genus name) followed by all lower case for the species name, and is to be written in italics.
Pisaura mirabilis (Nurseryweb spider)
Below is an example to walk you through. ​
Binomial naming
Pisaura mirabilis
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Pisauridae
Genus: Pisaura
Species: P. mirabilis
Binomial name: Pisaura mirabilis
Dolomedes fimbriatus
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Pisauridae
Genus: Dolomedes
Species: Dolomedes fimbriatus
Binomial name: Dolomedes fimbriatus
Categorising species is often not simple, and within many genera, there is a need for microscopic identification, as differences are to minute to recognise by eye.
As can be seen from the above example, both species belong to Pisauridae family (Nurseryweb spiders).
Yet they are in different genera within it, as can be seen in the classification above.
This genera is then used as the first part of their binomial name, with the second part being their distinct species. ​​​
​As the accompanying photos show, the two have similarities, but there are also noticeable differences in appearance.
Yet this is not the only differences. Each of these species has their own behaviours, environments and habits​
Gallery of a spider world
Coming soon
Spider behaviour and habits
Unique and perfectly adapted
Each spider species has a pretty unique way of doing things. The adaptations due to many thousands and even millions of years of evolution, have created a huge range of different behaviours and lifestyles.
Some male spiders dance to attract a mate, while others pluck the edge of a web, as though playing a captivating piece of music.
Some take care and mother their young, while others leave them to fend for themselves, but can take the hit of losing many by having huge numbers of offspring.
Once you delve into this world and begin to understand how fascinating they are, it is hard to ever imagine why you might once have feared them, or seen them as pointless. It will open your mind and eyes to a whole new world right there for you to whiteness.
​We will start this section with some myth busting and move onto mating habits of orbweb spiders and wolf spiders, before checking in on some of the hunting and feeding adaptations. This section will then be rounded off with a gallery of many photos with the binomial name given if identifiable.
1) Myth busting
Spiders are feared by many people around the world, and this fear is often built from misinformation and misunderstanding. Sure, spiders can be creepy sometimes and surprise us by making us jump as they dart across the carpet, or turn up in unexpected places, even as we walk into a web stretched across a pathway made by an orb-web spider. Yet in reality, they are not really anything to be afraid of, and they are mostly harmless. Of course, as with lots of things, there are species that can be venomous to humans and can have nasty and rarely fatal effects. Yet these are not what is hyped up by media reports of Brazilian wandering spiders found in bananas in UK supermarkets, or black widows lurking in grapes. This is just hype created by tabloids to sell stories. Even if bitten by a black widow spider for example, the result would rarely be fatal if you were a fit healthy adult, and they are also much more likely to hide than hunt you down just to sink their fangs in.
In any case, in the UK there aren't any spiders that are considered medically significant, meaning they can cause humans no significant harm. Reports online of spider bites that have made people really unwell in the UK are from improper cleaning of bites and the build up of bacterial infections, not venom from a spider bite.
And no, daddy longlegs are not the most venomous spider in the world...
2) Attracting a mate
Spider families and even species have an array of different mating and reproduction habits. These range from entirely different approaches for attracting a mate, based on the species lifestyle and adaptations, Families that contain species with good eyesight such as jumping spiders and wolf spiders often use dancing and visual displays to attract a mate, whereas species that are nocturnal, such as orb-web spiders that have relatively poor eyesight in comparison, will use sense of vibration on a web.
Lets look at a few examples of this approach:​​
The Wolf spider approach:
The Orbweb spider approach:
Orbweb spiders (Anyphaenidae) are masters of web making, creating intricate and beautifully symmetrical webs within a surprisingly short space of time. Unlike the fast hunting spiders with excellent eyesight, these spiders rely on touch and vibration as one of their primary senses, touching the edge of the web with a leg and pinpointing any vibration and its direction, or even sitting in the centre and sensing the vibrations around by placing their legs on different strands. They are so perfectly adapted to this lifestyle that they can sense the size and direction of the vibration precisely. Not only is this technique used in catching prey, but in mating.
A male will move to the edge of a females web and strum the web in a rhythmic fashion, then gauge as to whether or not to approach further. As with the wolf spiders, this motion has to be done perfectly and gauged appropriately, as one wrong move could end up fatal for the male. In the late summer and early autumn is the best time to see these displays in orbwebs, and sometimes after mating, the two spiders will couple and can be seen sitting on or near the web together.
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Wolf spiders (Lycosidae) are very quick spiders that have excellent eyesight and hunt their prey using ambush and speed to their advantage, rather than waiting for an insect to strike a web, as some other families do.
This lifestyle has implications for the way they do many other things, such as attracting mates. Because of their excellent sight, the male which is usually about half the size of the female will try to woo her with a ritualising movement of his enlarged pedipalps (which contain the semen he wants to transfer to her).
The female will watch this dance and the male will move slowly closer if it appears to be going well. Yet this doesn't always come to fruition, as the female could be unimpressed and move away, or could even strike the male, seeing him as prey.
This reflects the habits of a species that has a high reliance on eyesight as a key survival tool.
< The opposite video from 0.34 to 1.47 shows this behaviour.
3) Caring for young
Spiders have many different approaches to caring for their young, some have huge numbers of offspring and leave them to fend for themselves, others sit nearby and protect their youngsters, some even carry their newly hatched young on their back until they are ready to venture out into the world alone.
Each approach carries advantages and disadvantages, and these approaches are seen throughout the animal kingdom.
Having many individual offspring uses a lot of initial energy, but once the young have been laid the mother can leave them alone and carry on with her life, as although most will not survive, there is a probability that some will.
On the other hand, having few but fending for them uses a lot of energy of the mother as she has to protect and feed them, yet there is a much higher chance of survival of the offspring.
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