On 17/9/08 16:22, in article ,
"echinosum" wrote:


'Sacha[_3_ Wrote:
;816020']And thinking of spiders, we think - well I do, he's
indifferent! - that Ray was bitten on the lip by a spider yesterday.
He didn't feel a thing, it didn't itch and it didn't hurt. But it
swelled up like nobody's business, very quickly and then the area went
as numb as if he'd had a dentist's injection. I took him to the local
cottage hospital and then to the doctor at their insistence. Nobody
could be sure what it was and Piriton seems to have helped it go down.
Rather more British species of spider can give you a bite than is
commonly realised, and these include some very common and familiar
species.

In general, the cupboard spider is the most likely spider to give you a
nasty nip in a domestic location in Britain
http://tinyurl.com/5no5wo
But in the SW, perhaps it is more likely to be the suitably named
biting spider, a close relative accidentally introduced from the
Canaries in the late 19th century, which has become widespread and
common in the SW, and is spreading, and happy to live around our
houses:
http://tinyurl.com/47jg7s

Even common house spiders, small and large (Tegenaria spp), can bite
you, as can the garden spider (Araneus diadematus), though they are
unlikely to do so, and rarely very painful, though of course anyone can
have a sensitivity or allergy.
http://tinyurl.com/5owuzh
http://tinyurl.com/6bvf3f
http://tinyurl.com/5jvow3

Out in the countryside, there's a Cheirachanthium with a nasty bite
http://tinyurl.com/57qw56 found in Britain, and the water spider
Argyroneta aquatica http://tinyurl.com/5ty88u also bites.

In fact I rather suspect that most of larger spiders in this country
can bite humans, even if they rarely do so, in addition to the noted
smaller biters. Probably the beautiful wasp spider
http://tinyurl.com/6oavdt can bite, though that is not why it has its
name. It's rare in this country and confined to the south, but getting
more common. Certainly many of its relatives bite, including the silver
Argiope which is well known as a biter in the Americas.
http://tinyurl.com/5bbmma



Thank you, even if I am still shuddering. ;-( I do wish he'd seen
whatever-it-was so we could be sure. I'm more and more inclined towards
thinking it must have been a spider. And just today, my step daughter who
lives mere minutes from us by car, tells me she found a spider in her house
last night that was so large she could actually see the mandibles, if that's
the correct word. She has spent plenty of time in Kenya in the past and
like her Pa she's fairly bomb proof when it comes to spiders but even she
was horrified by this one and it's now an ex-spider, I'm afraid.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
(new website online)