Cancelled. My train, that is. Approximately two minutes before it is due. Not uncommon for this particular rail franchise and commuters mutter on the platform, wonder why they aren’t working from home, and replay time-worn mental maps of the network to plot alternative routes. Well, except for this would-be passenger.
A male false widow spider Steatoda nobilis, perhaps fallen off an earlier train, now on the platform where the service to Gatwick was supposed to arrive. I don’t think anyone’s noticed except me – which is just as well considering this species’ garish presentation in the press. All those headlines caused by this? Guilt by mistaken association; false widow evokes black widow. False widows can bite, but serious reactions are rare and they’re not really out to get us.
They came with bananas from the Canary Islands in the 1870s. Hitching a ride in food is common – I’ve found Caribbean woodlice in Tesco banana bags, and sometimes the genuinely dangerous Brazilian wandering spider also makes the journey. Coronavirus has shown how quickly humanity can transport viruses around the globe, but we are a passenger service for many, many other things, not always to our benefit or theirs.
False widows are really an urban species. Out in the wild, spiders have a different drama: dew and light.
And watch as the madness of summer is smoothed out by the first autumnal mists.
A Walk with Wildlife 
Thers’s always room for a good spider story… thanks Tony
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Thanks Tony.
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Good picture of the spider, and interesting write-up, Adele. But I almost didn’t open this post because of the title. Spiders are not my favourite creatures.
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I won’t describe my experiences of knocking into man-sized webs in Mexico then! Spiders are interesting but many people do find them uncomfortable at close range. Still, the world is a better place due to their fly control.
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That’s what my mom always said too, but then what will keep the spiders under control?
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Birds, shrews and other spiders! The daddy-long-legs spider now common in British houses readily eats our traditional ‘house’ spiders.
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So glad to hear it!
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Great spider picture. Yes covid has shown how fast anything can travel – we are so interconnected.
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The UK has been so lax on biosecurity over the years, causing ourselves and our wildlife a world of problems. Some have had a very odd global distribution, i.e. Phytophthora austrocedri, which attacks juniper trees, is also found in southern Argentina and has randomly appeared in Germany and Iran. Its actual origin is anyone’s guess.
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How big is Steatoda nobilis?
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The females have a leg span of up to 3.5cm, so considerably smaller than a house spider.
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It is staggering to think of what humans have intentionally or inadvertently introduced around the globe, and boy, are we paying for it!
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One of our most interesting spiders moved here by itself, through ‘ballooning’ across the English Channel. That’s the wasp spider, but I don’t think the false widow would have got here without bananas. We really need to get much better at checking fruit imports.
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I read that less than 1% of the import ships are checked by agricultural inspectors. There are just too many ships. The latest scourge is a 1″ leaf hopper from Asia that probably came in on a pallet as an egg mass and now threatens our fruit trees and hardwoods, with no natural predators here to keep them in check. It is always something!
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That’s so sad. Yes, every year seems to bring announcements of a new problem. We really have to start taking this seriously.
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Hope springs eternal…
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I heard that’s how scorpions found their way to Belgrade, hitching a ride on firewood shipments from the southern Balkan peninsula. Nice looking spider!
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We have scorpions in Kent! Although they have been here for centuries, apparently imported with Italian goods.
Noble false widows are quite spectacular but they tend to keep their webs for the most part, and I’m sure many people who have them as house guests never realise.
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