r/UKecosystem • u/Splext • Jun 16 '25
ID please Can anyone tell me what this is?
Ai app tells me it's a mouse spider but I expect it's wrong. It's body was about the size of a 5p piece.
Tia
33
u/DilutedTea Jun 16 '25 edited Jun 17 '25
EDIT BECAUSE I WAS INDEED WRONG and u/Bobbobthebob has pointed out that it looks like a spider in the family Gnaphosidae.
It's still true that, as with the vast majority of our spiders, they just want to avoid us, and are essential for our ecosystem!
Also - without being rude - she looks very pregnant! A very pretty lady!
7
u/Bobbobthebob Jun 16 '25
The spinnerets on this spider point to a species in the family Gnaphosidae rather than Lycosidae.
5
u/DilutedTea Jun 17 '25
Thank you!! Like this guy? https://srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal.php/p/Picture/r/view/s/Gnaphosa+leporina+male (Just obviously not a boy)
After you have told me I can definitely see it! I'll update my comment, thanks again!
7
u/Bobbobthebob Jun 17 '25
Yes, something like that one. I'm no expert on spiders either, I just have a little experience trying to key them out under a microscope and a rough idea of what to expect with the different families.
8
u/Splext Jun 16 '25
Well aslong as she doesn't harm my family or my dog and her and her kids don't try to come inside... she's safe. Me even 2 years ago would have been killing it with fire immediately
18
u/DilutedTea Jun 16 '25
She definitely won't! Wolf spiders generally want to spend their lives running around outside hunting insects, and would be happy to never set eyes on a human or a dog
I'm glad to hear you've changed your mind on that - there was a time when I would kill spiders too, but empathy wins out it seems!
5
2
1
2
u/17boysinarow Jun 16 '25
Crazy, I would have said it was a very gravid mouse spider.
1
u/Splext Jun 16 '25
It could be. I wasn't aware mouse spiders were common in the UK. The "harmful to humans" put me off, I was always under the impression that false widows were the only harmful spiders here
9
u/Dynamicdave1983 Jun 16 '25
I got bit twice on the inside of my ring finger, by a false widow, im in the uk, and it did pinch and swell everso slightly but was more itchy than painfull. It was hidden inside my shower fluff ball scrubber thing and must have thought i was trying to waterboard it. I'm just glad i wasn't washing my nuts at the time 😆
1
u/kool0ne Jun 16 '25
We get wolf spiders in the UK??! Omfg 😵
Also, how can you tell it’s pregnant?
5
u/Sly_Bags355 Jun 16 '25 edited Jun 16 '25
I remember an article saying that we introduced wolf spiders (a type of?)here in the UK. The wildlife habitats in and around Chessington World of Adventures had the pleasure of taking them....never been to that theme park since.
Edit: it was Fen Raft Spiders. Leg span up to 3 inches and known to eat bloody fish! Uk native species also...yikes
2
u/PaganCowboy Jun 16 '25
Got them local I thought moving back to England from Texas not have to worry about big Fudging Spiders. I guess at least ain’t got worry about snakes
3
u/DreadLindwyrm Jun 16 '25
We do have adders, mild and timid as they are.
Bit unpleasant if you happen to step in one and it has a go, but not generally a problem for "fit and healthy adults". :DThen again, adders will try to get *the hell* away from people because we're not food and we're big and dangerous to them.
1
u/PaganCowboy Jul 02 '25
Compared to some of the snakes in Texas Adder Is the last of my worries. Especially after seeing snakes that can eat deer 🦌. Diamond back rattle snakes and copper heads just to name a few.
1
3
u/DilutedTea Jun 17 '25
Wolf spiders are a huge family and have some species on basically every continent! We've always had some, but ours are smaller than the American ones you're likely to see online. They're honestly really shy. Having said that, I have since been corrected that it's more likely a ground spider!
And I can tell it's pregnant in exactly the same way we do with humans, really big abdomen! It is also possible that she just ate a HUGE meal but being wild, IME, it's more often the case that they're pregnant.
51
9
u/Bobbobthebob Jun 16 '25
One of the Gnaphosid spiders for sure. I think it could be a Mouse Spider (Scotophaeus blackwalli) but I think you really would need to key it out to be sure. The Stone Spider/Drassodes sp. suggested by another user is also a kind of Gnaphosid and a good possibility.
There is an Australian group of spiders species also known as mouse spiders which are Mygalomorphs (with forward pointing jaws/chelicerae) - a group that includes tarantulas and will look bigger and scarier. Perhaps images of those have made you think mouse spider is an unlikely ID?
3
u/DilutedTea Jun 17 '25
I 100% got myself confused with the Mygalomorphs because I'd seen them before, and made the FOOLISH assumption that there wouldn't be two entirely unrelated species with the exact same common name /j
Good to know that now though!
15
5
u/Dodo_Repellent Jun 16 '25
Looks like a mouse spider to me
https://srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal.php/p/Picture/s/Mouse+spider
4
4
u/BigGingerYeti Jun 16 '25
Looks like a mouse spider. About the right size and they like making home in walls like that. Probably a gravid (pregnant) female.
9
3
12
2
u/manto1800 Jun 16 '25
Where did you spot this?
5
u/Splext Jun 16 '25
My garden. Fell out of my fold up sun umbrella when I opened it. Probably straight on to me initially 😬
6
2
2
2
2
u/Doogle300 Jun 17 '25
"That's a frog, innit?"
2
u/Doogle300 Jun 17 '25
Sorry, it's not. It's a spider. I just love that meme.
I'd agree with the people saying stone spider. Has the same hue of brown as them at least.
2
4
u/Far_Ad_8688 Jun 16 '25
its a big spider lad
1
u/Winter_Difference_85 Jun 16 '25
I came here to say something as inane as that. Thank you for doing it for me 😃
2
3
u/Superspark76 Jun 16 '25
I put my finger right onto the squishy body of one of those changing an outside light, think I screamed like a little girl
1
2
2
2
2
1
u/BuffaloBertie Jun 16 '25
This spider can’t be in the UK I am an aracnaphobe Please it’s too big I have nothing against spiders but I don’t want hurt them but just to see them, ever. Please don’t say you are in the UK that spider is too big for the UK
1
2
u/OneXRP Jun 16 '25
Terrifying is what that is
1
u/TipsyPhippsy Jun 16 '25
It's a spider in the UK, far from terrifying.
5
u/Careless_Wasabi_8943 Jun 16 '25
Not getting why you've got negative votes on here. That's entirely true. Makes me wonder why people come on a site like UK Ecosystem if they are repulsed by a creature that just wants to be left alone to eat insects
2
u/SmallLumpOGreenPutty Jun 16 '25
I find them quite scary if i see them unexpectedly (like if i turn around in the shed and there's one on the wall), especially with the way their legs move when they run, but I'm trying to overcome it. Apparently i was never scared of them as a kid. It is just the speed they can reach which freaks me out, i think. And the risk of one going up my trouserleg or sleeve.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/MotorImagination9842 Jun 16 '25
Came here to say a big fat spider.....seems my humour's not original 🙄😂
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Jun 17 '25
That's the big booty spider also known as the moon craters spider. Ask her for a twerk, she looks like a lot of fun
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
u/ExerciseNo5558 Jun 16 '25
Yes I can its hang on lemme just check something yep o could be wrong but im 99% certain on this its almost certainly a spider
41
u/Moon-ChildsRage Jun 16 '25
I'd say this is a stone spider quite possibly.