A few days ago a spider walked through our living room. This happens often. because we often have the back door open. As usual, I wanted to grab the spider and put it back outside. The moment I picked up the spider my finger was bitten. In a reflex I then kicked the spider to death.
When I pressed the spot on my finger, a small drop of blood came out.
After about a minute, the finger began to tingle and become stiff.
This took several hours while the bite mark remained painful. After about 12 hours everything was back to normal.
By the way, I put the pin through when he was already dead.
Answer
Dear Jack,
Spiders are identified by their reproductive organs, the palps of the males, and the epigyne (a plate on the ventral side of the abdomen) in the females. Photos usually don’t show those details. Only when it comes to a spider with a special color pattern such as the tiger spider for example. can be determined with any certainty from a photo.
Your spider looks like the male (clearly seen by the swollen palps) of the common house spider (Tegenaria atrica). at this time of year they walk around looking for a female. But there are quite a few related species that look like it. If we want to be sure of the identification, we must examine the spider or what remains of it with the microscope. That would interest me because this is the first documented case of a bite from this type of spider. It is very exceptional that these spiders bite and I wonder if it is really that species.
If you want a definite answer, send the animal in a sturdy casing to
R. Jocqué Zoology Royal Museum for Middle Africa B3080 Tervuren
Kind regards,
Rudy
Answered by
Dr Rudy Jocque
Arachnology Zoology Biodiversity
Leuvensesteenweg 13 3080 Tervuren
http://www.africamuseum.be
.