Any arachnophobics, look away now!
A couple of weeks ago I was moving a plant pot when I disturbed the spider you are about to see.
It wasn't as large as those giant ones you see at this time of year in the bath with the really long legs, which are usually Tegenaria gigantea.
But it was really dark slate-grey and fleshy looking, with mahogany legs and a lightly fluffy rear end, and something vaguely sinister about it (some of you may say that there was no vagueness about it at all!).
I managed to grab some photos, and turned to Ian Dawson for an identification. Ian ran the RSPB library for seemingly decades before he retired last year, and he is Mr Spider Supremo.
My spider turns out to be Amaurobius ferox, the second name meaning 'the ferocious one', and apparently she can give quite a painful nip. It is widely distributed in the UK, and regularly found in gardens, where the female can be found right through the winter hiding amongst rubble and logs, cellars and outhouses.
The female is larger than the male, but both are sooty-dark with ghost-like markings on the abdomen.
The wonderful Jennifer Owen in her 30-year study of a Leicestershire garden found over 50 species of spider in her garden, which just shows you what a wonderful variety of life exists just outside our back doors.
And here is the moment I warned - 'the ferocious one'!
Your photo definitely made the hairs on the back of my neck prickle, I’m so pleased they are not that size in real life. Yep, I am among the millions who have an irrational fear of our eight legged friends.
There are a lot of Amaurobius ferox living in the stone walls, they seem to like the lime mortar which has lots of holes for them to hide in. Another common one in the walls is Dysdera Crocata, I’m really not keen on these, it is probably the orange/brown colour.
Recently I have found a few Steatoda nobilis (False Widows), it is a fascinating looking spider (at a distance). Only the females bite and then only if they are mishandled or provoked. The chance of me handling or even getting close enough to be bitten is zero. They will be a lot more frightened of me than I am of them so we cohabit quite happily by giving each other space.