Spider app launched by ecologists

Spider in Da House will help identify 12 of the most common invaders frequenting homes during autumn mating season. As the annual invasion of eight-legged males entering British homes gets underway, ecologists have launched an app to help people identify common house spiders.


Autumn marks the mating season for spiders, leading to reports of male spiders wandering into homes in search of a mate as early as August.


This season is already shaping up to be a bad one for arachnophobes, according to Prof Adam Hart, an entomologist and ecologist at the University of Gloucestershire and one of the creators of the app, Spider in Da House.


“This year has been seemingly a good one for the invertebrates which spiders are feeding on, and it’s quite mild out there. My prediction is that there’s going to be a reasonable amount of activity of house spiders this year,” said Hart, who admits himself to being scared of spiders.


“I‘m not a massive fan of spiders. Biologically they’re very interesting. But if I’m watching TV and one stalks across the room, I’ll jump like anyone else. It’s ridiculous because they’re mostly harmless here [in the UK]. There isn’t anything to be frightened of, it’s an irrational fear but one I sympathise with.”


He said he believed spiders brought together many things people were scared by – animals of a dark colour, angular in shape and found in shadowy places. “It’s a perfect storm of fear factors, combining together to make us wary of them.”


The app from the Society of Biology lists descriptions and photographs of 12 of the most common spiders found in homes from the approximately 660 species in the UK, including the European garden spider (Arraneus didaematus), the large hairy spiders Tegenaria genus and the Pholcidae family which are often mistaken for Daddy longlegs (which are actually a species of fly).


It also offers advice on differentiating between males – which account for the vast majority of the house spiders people spot because they are on the move – and females, which are usually larger so they can carry eggs. Males also have pedipalps on the head, which look like short legs and are used to transfer sperm into females.


“Instead of being tucked under a stone or in a pile of wood, males are out wandering for females, and they sometimes come into our homes looking for mates,” said Hart. “They don’t come in looking for a warm bed for the night.”


The spider mating season can run from as early as August, right through to December.


A citizen science project by the Society of Biology last year found that living rooms were the place house spiders were most likely to be spotted, though Hart admits “there’s a sampling issue there” because that’s also where people spend their most time. The survey found about 80% of sightings were of males.


Despite the seasonal spider army’s appearance spawning rashes of sightings on Twitter and other social media, Hart said it was impossible to yet say whether spider numbers were on the rise, due to a lack of data.



Guardian.com