On Friday I showed you a photo of one of my house guests from last year and asked you what it was:

Body approx. 2cm long

Obviously it’s a spider; the eight legs, two body segments and massive chelicera are a dead give-away, but what kind of spider is it? Jim identified it immediately (typical of a know-it-all biologist) as a Stone Spider, Drassodes lapidosus (Walckenaer, 1802). He also correctly recognised it as a gravid (egg laden) female.

I may do another spider at some point, since we end up with a sudden rush of spider enquiries in the late summer. It’s amazing how many people are unable to tell the difference between a gravid house spider and a tarantula…