On 30 January 2002 I was shopping in Wyvale Garden Centre, Bury St Edmunds. Whilst walking around the store I remembered an article in a Spider Recording Scheme Newsletter (Roberts 1997), concerning a cribellate spider Uloborus plumipes. At that time our spider recorder, Paul Lee, had no records of this spider from Suffolk. I decided to look in the houseplant section and sure enough hanging from a web of cribellate silk I found what was obviously a member of the family Uloboridae. This cribellate family is represented in Britain by two species, Uloborus walckenaerius and Hyptiotes paradoxus. The spider I found was obviously not one of these species. I took it home and subjected it to microscopic examination. From the description given by Roberts it appeared to be Uloborus plumipes. I sent the spider to Paul Lee for verification of the identity. Paul agreed that it was, indeed, U. plumipes. Since that discovery I have found a number of these spiders, both male and female, in Wyvale Garden Centre at Bury St Edmunds and also at Wyvale Garden Centre, Sudbury.
A brief resume of Roberts’s (1977) article showed that the first record of this spider in Britain came from a garden centre in Scunthorpe in March 1992. At that time the spider was becoming increasingly common in greenhouses in Holland and Belgium. It appeared to be effective in controlling whitefly and was relatively unaffected by pesticides. Since that date the spider has been recorded at garden centres from as far afield as Cumbria and Kent, spreading across to Wales. It would be helpful if members could keep a look out for this spider when they next visit a garden centre. They should obtain a specimen, if possible, and send to either Paul Lee or myself for verification.
Uloborus plumipes Lucas 1846
Length; male 2.5-4mm, female 3.3-5mm. The female is easily identified in the field by the long, pale hairs on legs 1; they give the appearance of large thickened knees. The adult female has two very prominent tubercles on the abdomen. They are variable in colour from very pale to quite dark. The hairs on legs 1 may also be pale or black. The spider spins a horizontal, grey cribellate web and, when resting on the web, it looks like a small, dried piece of vegetation. The photograph accompanying this article will give some help in identifying the spider.
Stan Dumican
Anglezarke
Sicklesmere
Bury St
Edmunds
Suffolk IP30
0TJ
References
Roberts M.J.(1997). Uloborus plumipes 1846 Lucas - Has it truly invaded Britain yet? Spider Recording Scheme Newsletter 27, 2.
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