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The British Arachnological Society d e n g i

The BAS is Britain’s only charity devoted and interest. All new members receive a free s e d

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exclusively to spiders and their relatives. copy of our Arachnologists’ Handbook m o t t o We use science and education to advance the (Russell-Smith et al. 2015) which provides a b w o R

wider understanding and appreciation of y

wealth of information on all the topics k c i N arachnids, and to promote their conservation. touched on in this leaflet, including much y b

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By joining the Society, you can keep more on how to develop your identification d e

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Britain’s spiders, and on regional field microscope. Members can also be allocated an l e H

d meetings and identification workshops where experienced mentor, who can help them n a

d r o you can expand your knowledge, expertise develop their interest in arachnology. f x O

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Find us at: www.britishspiders.org.uk , r a h c i R www.facebook.com/BritishSpiders y b

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or on Twitter @BritishSpiders t

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Registered Charity – England and Wales No. 260346, Scotland No. SCO44090 e L How to study spiders and their relatives Advancing Arachnology R R i i c c h h a a r r d d

G G Dendryphantes rudis - an a a l l l l o o n n attractive jumping spider found recently in a park in Liverpool. Spiders new to Britain turn up in surprising places. G e o f f

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Spiders can be found almost anywhere, but how can you discover more about these fascinating animals? Whether you want to study spider behaviour, learn about their ecology or just create a species list for your local patch, this leaflet provides guidance on how to get started. Similar approaches can be used for spider relatives, the harvestmen and false scorpions. for its characteristic web fluffy, lace-like webs of HOW TO WATCH (see Factsheet 6). laceweb spiders ( Amaurobius ARACHNIDS species) on a larch-lap fence Further afield or in dense conifer hedging. Around the house A walk in the countryside Temporary captives Spiders can be observed will yield many other For more detailed easily in their natural species to study – all with observations spiders can be habitat; your garden, shed fascinating behaviours and kept in captivity. A clear, or house are likely to have many with different web ventilated, plastic jar with a several different sorts. designs. You might find a shallow layer of soil Many spiders are nocturnal, female wolf spider carrying (dampened in one corner) so investigating walls and her egg-sac or young on her and a few twigs for structure, fences at night with a torch abdomen, or perhaps positioned out of direct will reveal other interesting witness the courtship dance sunlight, will act as a species. You may be lucky of a tiny jumping spider. temporary enclosure. You’ll and find a Garden Spider be able to watch web Araneus diadematus (see Enticing spiders out construction, prey capture, BAS Factsheet 4) rebuilding You don’t have to be a moulting and even breeding its web under the cover of passive observer either; the behaviour. Female large darkness, or perhaps a vibrations of an electric house spiders are excellent tubeweb spider Segestria (sonic) toothbrush or tuning subjects and will readily species (see Factsheet 9) at fork (middle-C) can be used produce a funnel web in its retreat waiting for to charm spiders from their captivity. They can be fed on passing prey. Your car’s hidden retreats. Try this out blue-bottles, blowflies and wing-mirror almost on the funnel webs of large other small insects. When certainly has a resident house spiders ( Tegenaria you’ve finished with your Missing-sector Orbweaver species – see Factsheet 2) observations, return the Zygiella x-notata – look out in your shed, or on the spider to its original habitat.

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x Harvestmen (see Factsheet f o r d 11) can be found in similar situations to spiders. False scorpions (see Factsheet 8) are tiny and usually revealed by serious searching rather than by casual observation.

The large house spider Tegenaria saeva is a common resident inside buildings and in gardens. It can be charmed out of its retreat with a tuning fork or electric toothbrush! needs to have consent from therefore a major leap HOW TO CATCH the relevant Government towards identification. ARACHNIDS agency (Natural England, Although many families do Natural Resources Wales or not spin webs to catch prey, Searching for arachnids can Scottish Natural Heritage) if this in itself helps to narrow be challenging but fun. you plan to remove spiders down what the spider might Depending on your interest from the site for be. Harvestmen are often and the habitat you’re identification. seen wandering on working in, there are several vegetation or sitting on walls Catching methods ways to catch them. or fences. The most basic sampling kit Remember that different comprises a variety of small, • Hand searching is another habitats will yield different lidded plastic pots although simple way to find spiders. species. You can buy much of more specialised equipment Grub around at the base of the sampling kit from can be used, as described thick vegetation (you may entomological suppliers, but below. For specimens you wish to wear gloves) or look with a little ingenuity you can need to take home, it is under stones, logs, or loose make the equipment yourself important to label the pot bark – carefully replacing much more cheaply. with a slip of paper inside, them exactly as you found Avoiding disease with location, habitat and them. Larger spiders can be Before embarking on date written in pencil. guided into a plastic pot with fieldwork, make sure your your fingers while smaller • Visual searching can be very Tetanus vaccination is up-to- spiders can be caught rewarding and has the date and guard against tick without damaging them advantage that spiders seen and insect bites. It is using a ‘pooter’. In its can often be associated with particularly important to simplest form this is made of their distinctive webs. Simply familiarise yourself with the two sections of plastic tubing examining buildings (inside occurrence of Lyme disease pushed together, with a and out), fences and shrubs in your area and its piece of gauze between can reveal a wide variety of symptoms (see lyme- them. You suck through the species. The web architecture diseaseuk.com and narrow-bore tube, aiming the can indicate the family to www.nhs.uk/Conditions/ other end at the spider, which a spider belongs and is Lyme-disease/Pages/ which is drawn into the G e o

Introduction .aspx). f f

O x f o r Getting permission d Before collecting spiders, you should ask the landowner’s permission. Many owners, and particularly Nature Reserve managers (see below), appreciate receiving a list of the species you find. On Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), the owner P

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pooter (the gauze stops the t a tray or upturned umbrella h e r spider reaching your mouth). s will dislodge interesting The spider can then be blown species, including from gently into a collecting pot. otherwise difficult-to- Do not attempt to pooter sample habitats like gorse. spiders larger than the bore Be careful not to damage of the large tube – long- twigs or branches. legged spiders and • Pitfall traps can be made harvestmen, in particular, can from a pair of plastic be fatally injured in this way. Sweep netting in long grass or drinking cups, one inside the Live spiders should be potted vegetation will yield a variety of fascinating spiders. other, sunk into the ground - singly, because they are their rims flush with the soil highly cannibalistic! • A sweep net can be made surface. Put a coarse wire R i c from a strong material bag h a

r mesh on the trap to stop d

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a (like heavy calico) held on a l l o

n small vertebrates falling in sturdy frame. This robust net by accident and a rain cover is swept in front of you, in a e.g. a coffee-cup lid or a figure-of-eight motion, as square of plastic, supported you walk slowly through above the ground over the long vegetation. Check the trap to prevent flooding. A bag regularly, collecting any small quantity of dried moss By hand searching for spiders you can spiders or harvestmen of learn about their ecology, web will provide crevices for the interest, before emptying structure and behaviour. catch to hide in. Surface- out the contents and active spiders (and other • Sieving leaf-litter, moss and sweeping again. A simple animals) fall into the traps loose vegetation in a plastic sweep net can be made and can’t climb out again. garden sieve (1 cm mesh), from the frame of an old Traps should be checked and over a plastic tray or sheet, is tennis racquet (strings the inner cup removed and a useful way of locating removed) to which a emptied twice a day. If the spiders, harvestmen (see pillowcase is fixed with traps are left without Factsheet 11) and false drawing pins. inspection for more than a scorpions (see Factsheet 8). • Beating shrubby/leafy day they need to contain a After sieving, return the leaf- vegetation with a stick over liquid (e.g. the antifreeze litter or vegetation to where P it was found. G

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Sieving leaf-litter vigorously over a tray helps you find small spiders, Using a beating tray to dislodge A pitfall trap in position, but without harvestmen and false scorpions. spiders. the wire mesh or a rain cover. propylene glycol diluted eye, many can be identified text for harvestmen, a free 50:50 with water) to kill and when mature in the field translation is available (see temporarily preserve the with a 10x hand lens. below) of the Dutch key by spiders. Pitfall traps must be Macrophotography is an Windhoven (2009). used with care because they increasingly popular way of Immobilising spiders are indiscriminate, recording and sharing temporarily sometimes catching large images of arachnids and Identifying live spiders often numbers of invertebrates. allows the identification of requires them to be Make sure you have the some species. Other species temporarily immobilised in time to process and identify though, especially the tiny an appropriate position so your catch before embarking money spiders that distinctive structures on pitfall sampling. (Linyphiidae), can only be can be seen. A device such identified with a microscope For additional collecting as a ‘spi-pot’ can be useful as preserved adults. The methods and further advice, for this. Alternatively, best place to start is with see the BAS Arachnologists’ placing a spider in a small, Britain’s Spiders (Bee et al. Handbook (Russell-Smith et clear plastic bag which is 2017), which gives guidance al . 2015). gently folded over so that on the level of magnification the animal is trapped needed to identify different carefully between the layers species. For both IDENTIFICATION means that both surfaces harvestmen and false are readily visible. As your interest develops scorpions Field Studies you’ll want to identify Council charts covering all Immobilising spiders different species. Although the species are available permanently only a handful of Britain’s (Richardson 2010 and Legg For most species, however, spiders are distinctive & Farr-Cox 2016, to be absolutely certain of enough to be easily respectively). For those their identity they will need identified with the naked wanting a more detailed to be killed and examined with a microscope. It is G e o

f necessary to compare f

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d reproductive structures - the male palps and the female epigyne - with illustrations in guides such as the Collins Field Guide (Roberts 1995) or The Spiders of Great Pot A Pot B Britain and Ireland (1985). Preservation and microscope A Spi-Pot from mini milk-containers techniques are beyond the A live spider can be immobilised by putting it in pot A and scope of this leaflet but are gently inserting pot B to hold it between the cling film and the covered in full in Russell- foam disc. Diagnostic features can then be viewed with a hand Smith et al .’s Arachnologists’ lens. Once identified, it can be released unharmed. Handbook (2015). sufficient. Records for a recording and publishing HELPING ADVANCE growing number of easily observations made both in ARACHNOLOGY recognized species can be the field and on arachnids submitted online with a kept in captivity. Guidance Contributing to national good photograph. These are on keeping spiders in recording listed at captivity can be found in the Advances in understanding britishspiders.org.uk/srs_sp Arachnologists’ Handbook distribution, abundance, ecies_survey s together with (Russell-Smith et al . 2015). phenology and habitat guidance on submission. For Inspiration for simple preferences of British spiders other species guidance may observations and rely primarily on structured be obtained from the experiments can be found in information collected by resources recommended the classic book World of amateurs. One way in which below, although for many Spiders (Bristowe 1958), you can contribute is by species a preserved although spider names have submitting your species specimen will be required changed considerably since records to the Spider and for checking. For false- its publication. Likewise, Harvestman Recording scorpion records see the details of the lives of British Schemes’ national database, Pseudoscorpion Recording harvestmen and false which already holds well Scheme at scorpions are still shrouded over a million spider and www.chelifer.com/ in mystery. around 46,000 harvestman ?page_id=81 . BAS members are records (contact details encouraged to publish any below). Accurate Contributing to findings in the Society’s identification is, of course, arachnid biology Newsletter and Spider vital and your records will Details of the ecology and Recording Scheme need to be verified. For behaviour of many British Newsletter ; some amateur some species a good macro- spiders are undocumented. studies may also be suitable photograph (usually Amateurs can make a big for our scientific journal requiring a dorsal view of contribution to advancing Arachnology . the whole spider) is arachnology through G e o f f

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Possible investigation: x f o r d Everyone ‘knows’ that Large House spiders ( Tegenaria species) head indoors during autumn either to find mates or to overwinter somewhere warmer. Males of these species are certainly much more noticeable from August onwards but do they really come in from outside? By adding a tiny dot of paint (emulsion or acrylic) to the carapaces of individuals (see right) you find in your house, and a different coloured dot to those captured in the garden, you can test this idea. By noting ‘recaptures’ found in the house you can see whether any of them originated outdoors. RESOURCES

BAS Factsheets www.youtube.com/watch?v=czblDF1kPJE britishspiders.org.uk/factsheets (how to catch spiders with a sonic toothbrush) Books www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLtLByUe4EQ Bee, L. & Lewington, R. 2002. House and (how to make a temporary spider enclosure) Garden Spiders . FSC fold-out chart. Bee, L., Oxford, G. & Smith, H. 2017. Britain’s Online identification guidance Spiders: A Field Guide . Princeton University (NB these European sites include some Press, Woodstock. species not found in the UK) Bristowe, W. S. 1958. World of Spiders . Collins www.araneae.unibe.ch New Naturalist (available second-hand or as www.jorgenlissner.dk print-on-demand from www.pavouci-cz.eu http: //www.newnaturalists.com) http: //wiki.spinnen-forum.de/index.php? Legg, G. & Farr-Cox, F. 2016. Illustrated Key to title=Hauptseite the British False Scorpions (Pseudoscorpions) . www.eurospiders.com FSC fold-out chart. Richards, P. 2010. Harvestmen of the British Online help with identification of Isles . FSC fold-out chart. submitted photographs Roberts, M. J. 1985. The Spiders of Great Although many species of British spider Britain and Ireland compact edition . Harley cannot be definitively identified from Books, Colchester. photographs (see above) high quality images Roberts, M. J. 1995. Spiders of Britain & can be submitted to the following website for Northern Europe . HarperCollins Publishers, an expert opinion: britishspiders.org.uk/ London. srs_contact_us (the British Arachnological Russell-Smith, T., Smith, H. & Oxford, G. 2015. Society’s Spider Recording Scheme - images Arachnologists’ Handbook . British with full record details can be submitted via Arachnological Society, York. the ‘Contact Us’ page. If definitive Wijnhoven, H. De Nederlandse hooiwagens identification is possible, this is the only route (Opiliones) Entomologische Tabellen 4, that ensures your records contribute to the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, Netherlands national Spider and Harvestman Recording (available in the UK from Pemberley Books). Scheme). A free, downloadable (but unillustrated) Help with identification is also available from: translation of the text is available from www.facebook.com/groups/ britishspiders.org.uk/srs_harvestmen_key BritishSpiderIdentification https: //www.brc.ac.uk/irecord/ Online help with making collecting kit Help with pseudoscorpion identification is Videos by Eco Sapien in collaboration with available via the Pseudoscorpion Recording the BAS: Scheme website - www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDvlPf_aIt4 http: //www.chelifer.com/?page_id=81 (how to make a simple pooter) www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HLxBuY66ew Kit suppliers include: (how to make a spi-pot) www.nhbs.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfnpVZV56Gc www.watdon.co.uk (how to make a sweep net) www.wildcareshop.com