AN APPEAL FOR HOUSE SPIDERS
Can you help in the recording of house spiders in
Essex? The common house spiders are various
species in the genus Tegenaria. The commonest
seems to be T. duellica (=T gigantea) rather than
the "proper" house spider T. domestica which
appears to be rather rare. Less common is the large
"Cardinal House Spider" T. parietina and the species
T. agrestis, although usually found outdoors, can also
venture into houses.
A look at the maps of our present records for these
spiders in Essex shows the difficulty in
recording spiders that live in houses where we
cannot easily hold field meetings!
All the Tegenaria species are undoubtably much
more widespread than shown here. Indeed T.
duellica probably occurs in every house in the
county.
Unfortunately none ofthe Tegenaria house spiders
can be identified to species with certainty unless they
Tegenaria agrestis (Walckenaer)
are mature and examined under a microscope.
Tegenaria species mature mainly in the
autumn and winter.
If members send me specimens by post I will
gladly refund postage and tell them what species
they have in their house. Tegenaria spiders are

very tough and should have no problem surviving the postal service e.g. inside a matchbox!
Peter Harvey 9 Kent Road, Grays, Essex, RM17 6DE