Science -- Your Future, Scotland's Future
Identify the Spider... *
Enormous (life-size, ho ho) image of the spider
This Spider recently appeared in our new office building, and did all sorts of threatening things, such as resting on the wall, and not moving a great deal. Full of the joys of my new digital camera (the wonderful Canon EOS 300D), I took the picture above (click on it for the full-size image), while the Spider debated as to whether or not it would leap on my face. Which it didn't. (It was also singularly unimpressed when I measured it: 9 cm from top to bottom.) *

Does anyone out there know what kind of spider this is? (Apart from sleepy...)

* Update (14 Sep 06): Thanks to an email from Karen Innes, I now know that this is a cobweb spider (Tegenaria gigantea). It has similar markings to the common house spider (Tegenaria domestica), but is much larger. (For more information, have a look at the following page.)

* Of course, it may have been terrified into immobility by the sight of a huge face leering down at it, and its eight wee eyes might have been dazzled by the flash...