UK Nature and Environment

387 readers

32 users here now

General Instance Rules:

No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia.
No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies.
No harassment, dogpiling or doxxing of other users.
Do not share intentionally false or misleading information.
Do not spam or abuse network features.

Community Specific Rules:

Keep posts UK-specific. There are other places on Lemmy to post articles which relate to global environmental issues (e.g. slrpnk.net).
Keep comments in English so that they can be appropriately moderated.

Note: Our temporary logo is from The Wildlife Trusts. We are not officially associated with them.

Our autumn banner is a shot of maple leaves by Hossenfeffer.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Giant spiders the size of rats making a comeback in UK (www.independent.co.uk)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The UK’s largest breed of spiders, which can grow to the size of rats and hunts fish, are making a comeback in Britain.

From near-extinction in 2010 - when only a handful remained as their wetland homes were destroyed by humans - the number of fen raft spiders are now steadily increasing thanks to recent conservation efforts.

The spiders are set to have their best year on record at nature reserves ran by RSBP.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (3 children)

The article is very poorly written. Saying they can grow to the size of a mans hand? Good thing that all men have the same size hands.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It's also not the "The UK’s largest breed of spiders". If they are going by legspan (which they have to do to get anywhere near hand size) then Tegenaria parietina has it easily beaten.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

Their webs grow up to 25cm in diameter, but they themselves are much smaller(up to 8cm)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Plus the article is referring to total leg span as its size, where many people are thinking of the size of the spider's body. They're not very big, nowhere near the size of most tarantulas. They're so small and light they can literally walk on water.