Web of terror! A species of spider that can leap 40 TIMES the length of its body has arrived in Brit
A TERRIFYING hairy creature has just been spotted for the first time in the UK – a spider which can leap distances more than 40 TIMES its own body length.
It would be tough getting past this creepy crawly unnoticed, it has 340-degree vision and was spotted roaming around Liverpool by insect experts.
The sighting of the dendryphantes rudis in the Festival Gardens, in Otterspool, officially marks the first on British soil.
The group of researchers were doing a survey of flora and fauna in the park and even expert Tony Hunter, assistant curator of entomology at Liverpool’s World Museum, could not identify the spider at first.
Need to know facts about this breed of spider:
* They're around half a centimetre long.
* They catch their prey, including insects and small invertebrates, by jumping on top of them.
* They can leap sideways and backwards just as easily as they jump forwards.
Tony told the Liverpool Echo: “We were excited to discover a spider previously unknown on British soil.
“This species has been recorded in the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and Switzerland, so just what this one is doing in Liverpool and how it got here is a mystery to be unravelled.
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“Both spiders have been preserved and will be incorporated in to World Museum’s reference collections.
“Visitors will eventually be able to see them on display in the museum’s Clore Natural History Centre.”
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