The spiders don’t spin webs to catch prey, instead they lie in wait on the floor of the Brazilian rainforest.

A complete list of the spiders recorded in Britain, indicating the ease of identification as well as rarity and conservation statusThey are common in Australia but have been introduced accidentally to parts of the USA, Pakistan, India, China, and Japan.

The great fox-spider is one of the largest members of the wolf-spider family, hunting spiders that do not use webs to catch prey. It chases down beetles, ants and smaller spiders before pouncing on them and injecting deadly venom. The prey is immobilised and its internal organs liquefy. The spider – which poses no risk to humans – feeds using fang-bearing jaws.Warm weather contributes to more spider sightings, but this doesn't necessarily mean more spiders, says Hine, who spent many years dealing with the Museum’s spider identification requests. Which species of spider will UK residents most commonly find in their gardens and where? There may be 80 or so spider species in a typical garden. Many are rather small and easily overlooked. Some of the most common spiders are most obvious in the autumn when they mature. For most, the bite from a noble false widow, is nothing more than a short-lived, nuisance, rather like a bee or wasp sting. For a very few people, a bite might develop into something more serious. A study in Ireland of confirmed false widow bites found that some required hospitalisation but this should not be cause for panic. Amongst the scaremongering we should always remember that spider bites are incredibly rare in the UK. The vast majority of us will never get bitten by a spider, and of those few that do, the vast majority will experience only very minor effects. Legg, G. & Jones, R. E. 1988. Pseudoscorpions. Synopses of the British Fauna. Shrewsbury: Field Studies Council. As with its sister volume on harvestmen, this provides information on structure and biology of the British pseudoscorpions as well as keys and distribution maps.