Spiders have actively fuelled fear and suspicion in popular culture for centuries, becoming an integral part of the Halloween canon.
With their multiple beady eyes, bristly legs, fangs, and a reputation that far exceeds the reality of their character, they are understandably not everyone’s favourite creature.
However, some of us find them a wonder; often colourful, always acrobatic and their ability to spin patterned silk webs is fascinating.
Most of us, even with a limited knowledge of the natural world, know that spiders are not insects, but arachnids.
They have, of course, only a head and abdomen, eight legs rather than six, and no wings (flying spiders! now that’s an arachnophobe’s Halloween nightmare).
Our encounters with spiders are rarely a "Hammer Horror" experience of clawing an exaggerated web from our face in a dark crypt or dunk dungeon; more commonly it’s in the comfort of our own homes.
(Image: Richard Penska)
The gangly-legged cellar spiders that leave those infuriating cobwebs in hard-to-reach corners, the large brown house spider, with its boxing glove like "pedipalps", trying to clamber out of the bath, or a tiny black money spider hanging by a single thread, its safe landing assured in the vain hope of financial reward.
All spiders take live prey and different species have their preferred hunting methods, either by chasing prey down, lying in wait or constructing elaborate adhesive traps.
Unlike most invertebrates, spiders........