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RECORDS OF HOUSE SPIDERS Tegenaria spp.
Don Hunford has been keeping a record of the occurrence of Tegenaria house spiders
falling into the sink in his house for several consecutive years. This has produced some
very interesting numerical information that clearly shows two peaks, the biggest from late
August through September and another less distinctive one around April and May. This
would seem likely to be related to the main periods of maturity, when the adult males in
particular must leave their webs and go wandering looking for females. The majority or
all of these records are likely to refer to the species Tegenaria gigantea which seems to
be the most widespread and abundant house spider in the county.
These two periods coincide with maturity periods common to a lot of other spiders. The
largest number of species probably mature in the early summer period, but there are also
many others that mature in late autumn and spring or early summer. A number of species
even mature in the depths of the winter and must be sexually active in some of the coldest
conditions.