To wonder about DNA testing of house spiders in isolated old buildings

[DragonKaoos]

If the house spider originally came from outside the UK, it might have first arrived in castles and stately homes inside packing crates.

So, are the spiders in castles and stately homes the direct descendants of spiders that arrived in those buildings a few hundred years earlier?

If they did DNA tests on house spiders in different castles would they find that they were genetically diverse because of being in those castles for centuries? By which I mean, do spiders in Balmoral have DNA that’s different to the DNA of spiders in Windsor castle?

This. It’s uncanny 😂

@ShitMermaid please google spiders' webs on psychotropic drugs and look at those next time you are stoned too. Research by Nasa. I won't link as most articles start with a big spider picture, but you can feel at one with everything, even arachnid consciousness.

Brilliant opening post OP. I'm posting so i can read this thread later. This is the kind of thing i think of, consider posting about, then dont out of fear it will lead to a pile on of people sternly saying "don't be silly".

I got this as a gift one Christmas, beautiful book - would recommend.

Is the daddy long legs an annoying distant cousin that is technically family but no one invites because they don’t really like them?

I live in Italy. Will be in the UK next week and have been thinking "urgh, it's spider season over there".

Literally never see any here! There must be some somewhere, but maybe it's the way houses are designed, they don't come in.

🤣🤣🤣

If you mean the opilione or harvestman (sometimes called the daddy long legs but this common name is also applied to crane flies and cellar spiders)...

It pre dates spiders by a long way, they're an arachnid, not a spider, have been relatively unchanged for 400 MILLION years, because they're so freaking successful at what they do, why change!

They aren't really hunters though, they're omnivores and scavengers, they don't have fangs or venom, they have weeny lobster claws for picking apart debris, poo, dead insects - some will catch soft bodied stuff like aphids too.

I am unaware of any family feud between the spiders and the opiliones, the latter are just not interested in the antics of the modern yoof, and would prefer to quietly potter about, doing their thing, occasionally freaking humans out, and confusing people as to what they are.

Theres also loads of types, and whilst some look like a small blob with super long fine legs, some are really quite the chonky units with relatively short legs - and eyes on turrets. Because why the fuck not. https://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/megabunus-diadema

.

I think I love you 🤣

I rescued one (huge one) from the bath while I was in the shower yesterday morning. To thank me, it hitched a ride on my dressing gown and ran across my chest when I sat down on the bed. Then when I went to bed last night it reappeared and kept getting on the bed and running towards me. I had to keep flicking the covers to make it go back on the floor.
DH reckons it's decided that since I saved it, now it thinks we're friends. DD informed me it's spider mating season, so maybe it wants to be more than friends...

wow.
fascinating thread.

when living in sarf landin we had a few exotic spiders in/around the house like false widows, tube web (absolutely beautiful!) but never thought the big house ones are of exotic origin.

@WiddlinDiddlin
Jeff! 🤣 Did he return?!
@MrsTerryPratchett
Flamethrower 👊 I'm with you!

Totally same

Was supposed to stay over at sibling's once and they showed me their 'pet': a dead s**r they'd unfurled and called Cuthbert on the windowsill. I think I felt a migraine coming on and exited left...😆

I did not know there were mosquitos on the underground. Do you think the mice are their own species?

Sorry about the departure from spiders!