Love Spiders - Spider facts

1. There are about 650 different species of spider in the UK ranging from tiny money spider the Minute maro (Maro minutus) to the huge Cardinal spider (Tegenaria parietina) with a leg span of more than 10 centimetres. The heaviest spider in Britain is probably the Four-spot orbweaver (Araneus quadratus) which weighs up to 2.5 grams!

4. The Whelk-shell jumper (Pseudeuophrys obsoleta) lives in seashells on the Kent, Essex and Suffolk coasts.

5. The Midas tree-weaver (Midia midas) lives only in ancient forests, in old hollow trees or bird nests. It is probably extinct at Donnington Park where the last tree it occupied has fallen over, it may survive at Windsor Park and is still found in Epping Forest

6. Wolf spiders (Pardosa amentata) are so named because it was once thought that they hunted in packs! - they don’t. 7. When a male Wolf spider finds a female he wishes to mate with, he will dance for her! If she isn’t impressed she may attack him, but if she likes the dance, she may allow him to mate with her. His dance consists of waving his front legs and vibrating his abdomen! 8. Wolf spiders are great mothers. The female carries her egg sac around with her to protect it. She basks in sunlit areas to help the eggs develop quicker and moistens it to stop it drying out. When the young hatch, she carries her babies around on her back for about a week and they all share food. Photo © Greg Hitchcock

9. Long before humans invented diving Water spiders (Argyroneta aquatica) had evolved successful diving techniques. They trap air in fine hairs on they abdomen creating a scuba tank and build a silken diving bell underwater, that they fill with air. This enables the spiders to roam underwater hunting small animals

10. Many spiders mate only once, but females can lay fertile eggs up to a year and a half after they have mated. Contrary to popular belief it is rare for a female spider to eat the male.

11. Iridescent green fangs are fitting for Halloween, and that’s just what the Bronzed tube web spider (Segestria florentina) has! Although it is large enough to catch woodlice, it doesn’t like the taste of them. The Bronzed tube web spider will attack a woodlouse crossing its web, but quickly discards it as it doesn’t like the flavour! The Woodlouse spider (Dysdera crocata), on the other hand, loves woodlice, and has extra large jaws with which to bite them!

12. Do you sometimes find trapped House spiders (Tegenaria species) in your bath? They do not come up the plug hole but fall in off the walls, they are most likely to be males out looking for a female to mate with. Photo © Jon Mold

13. British spiders use venom to subdue and kill their prey, but three related species the Tufted featherleg (Uloborus walckenaerius), Hothouse featherleg (Uloborus plumipes) and the Triangle spider (Hyptiotes paradoxus) have no venom. There is one species with venom can cause discomfort to humans – a bad bite can result in localised swelling and nausea. This species– the Noble false widow (Steatoda nobilis) - is found in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall - it is thought to have arrived in the UK from the Canary Islands on imported bananas.

14. Rosser's sac-spider (Clubiona rosserae) The first ever photogaph of this rare spider has recently been published. The Rosser's sac spider has not been seen in the UK for ten years until it was found in autumn 2010! For more information click here.

15. The Spiders of Dorset by Octavius Pickard-Cambridge published in 1879 was one of the first books about spiders. 130 years on many of the spiders appear to be disappearing and 10 species of spider found on the now highly fragmented Dorset heathlands have gone missing from large areas.

17. The Cloud-living spider (Semljicola caliginosus) lives on mountains in Cumbria, Yorkshire and the Scottish Highlands. This species is under threat from climate change - a few degrees rise in temperature may push the Cloud-living spider to extinction. Outside Britain it has only been found in Siberia where it was reported in 2006.

18. Peus's long-back spider (Mecopisthes peusi) appears to have largely disappeared from its heathland habitats in the South of England, but still hangs on in North Wales and Cheshire on sand dunes and in Northern Ireland

19. The female Nursery web spider (Pisaura mirabilis) creates a tent-like web for her young - a nursery web! Her spiderlings are safe inside their nursery as she stays with them to protect them from predators. 20. The male Nursery web spider gives a silk wrapped gift to a female spider before mating. However, this isn’t just a romantic gesture, it’s a survival tactic! The wrapped up insect gift is given to the female to distract her while he mates with her, which stops her from attacking him. Sometimes the male cheats and wraps up some rubbish instead! Photo © Roger Key

21. In East Anglia the Fen raft spider (Dolomedes plantarius) lives in one fen on the Norfolk and Suffolk border. One of our biggest species, it lives and hunts on the water’s surface, sensing vibrations with its legs and can catch small fish. A borehole that was sucking water out of the fen has been relocated and pools have been dug to maintain the habitat. This has probably saved the species from extinction at Lopham and Redgrave Fen for the moment. There are also single sites for the Fen raft spider in Wales and Sussex

22. The Horrid ground-weaver (Nothophantes horridus) may be the rarest spider in the world. It has only ever been found in two limestone quarries near Plymouth, one of which has now been developed.

23. Mothercare spiders (Theridion sisyphium) deserve their name – they are great mums who take excellent care of their young. The female shares her prey with her spiderlings, she regurgitates her food much like some bird parents do, and the young feed from her mouth. Mothercare spiders are tiny – the females are just 3-4mm long. Photo © Dragisa Savic

24. Some spiders are masters of disguise. The Sand running-spider (Philodromus fallax) is flecked with black, yellow and white and lives on sand dunes from Cheshire around to Lincolnshire, when it stops moving it blends nto the sand and disappears. Another endangered species the Lichen running-spider (Philodromus margaritatus) lives on tree trunks in Scotland and Central South England and looks like a bit of lichen. Photo © Stephen Dalton - from 'Spiders' published by A&C Black

25. When Beatrix Potter was in her twenties she drew a number of close up studies of spiders, at least six of which are in the Beatrix Potter Collection at The Victoria & Albert Museum (not on public view but they can be seen by appointment). In 1887 she painted in colour a magnificent study of a Male Jumping Spider which is now in the Free Library of Philadelphia.