Sue wrote:
"Cat(h)" wrote
Pholcuses are the skinny long-legged spiders which hang from the
corners of your ceiling. Tegeneria are what are sometimes called
house spiders, and they are big burly creatures with a large
grey/brown abdomen a bit like a tabby cat, somewhat hairy. The males
have little boxing gloves at the end of their pedipalps (either side
of the head), and the females are slightly bigger and don't have the
boxing gloves.
snip


holey cow batman; that is well remembered :-)

The latter sounds like the one living in the dark recesses of our
garage, and it's very VERY big (the spider that is, not the garage).
When it appears I don't hang around to measure, but I'd swear it's as
big as.. as.. the hand of someone who has much bigger hands than me!

My Other Half won't hear of it being evicted and claims it earns its
keep eating bluebottles. If the truth be known he likes to keep it
hanging around so I won't poke around in there to try and tidy up any of
the mountains of "stuff that might come in useful" (but hardly
ever does). The ruse works, because although with Michael's trick of
yogurt pot and card I can deal with most spiders, this one seems *way*
too big and hairy to tangle with.

I used to collect spiders, despite them giving me the heebie jeebies.
Those big black hairy house spiders still intimidate me but these days
they seem to have been completely replaced by the Pholcus. When I was
a kid, Pholcus were only found in the most southerly Irish counties and
bottom 1/3 of UK. Now they are everywhere. I do not mind them as they
are relatively slow and delicate looking.
The big ones in yer husbands shed scare me though. I remember jumping
when I had to look at one down a microscope (to examine its naught bits
to identify it). You get used to it but I still ifnd it hard to pick
one up without a glass.


Des


--
Sue