SCYTODES THORACICA IN SUFFOLK

After attending a one-day spider course at Daws Hall in Essex and hearing the appeal for records by our county recorder, I sent Paul Lee a list of species that I felt I could identify.

            Imagine my surprise, when after some forwarding of evidence, he confirmed one entry as being a first for west Suffolk and only the second for the county as a whole, namely Scytodes thoracica. This nocturnal spider lives in houses but does not spin a web. Instead it catches insects by spraying them with glue and poison from its fangs - hence its common name, the spitting spider.  Fortunately for me, and to quote Roberts’ Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland, “The appearance of this six-eyed spider is so characteristic that confusion with any other British species is impossible”.  Oh, for the rest of life to be so simple!

            I’m afraid I’ll have to leave the details of this appearance for you to work out from the photographs, but I did observe that the two spiders I found in our living room seemed to have a distinct liking for our Turner prints and never once appeared on the Constable.

Reference

Roberts J. 1993. The spiders of Great Britain and Ireland. Harley Books Colchester.

Barry Ruggles
 
  17, Swanfield, Long Melford, Sudbury, CO10 9EZ