CARL MARSHALL: News from the Stratford Butterfly Farm - wandering spiders sent to Coventry

This is the most dangerous species of spider in the world.

Last Friday I recieved a telephone call from a friend of mine named Andy Baker. Andy works at Fyffes plc - a fruit ripening site in Coventry and he informed me that he had found an unknown "banana spider" in a shipment from Columbia and did I want it. 

Well, of course, being a devout arachnophile I said I would take a look at it as you never know what it could be, coming in a shipment of fruit. Anyway on Saturday morning Andy came in with the aforementioned beastie but unfortunately it had died over night due to being sealed in a small plastic bag, but nonetheless It was quite obvious what it was. It was a Brazilian wandering spider (Phoneutria nigriventer).  We had had one of these only last year on display in our nasties enclosure, that had been discovered in (you guessed it) Coventry and we kept it for over a year and then it unfortunately but quite naturally died. I kept its remains and photographed them for this article last night (Sun 23rd) when I was just shutting down my computer when the telephone rang. It was Andys wife Sarah saying that Andy had found another spider of what looks to be the same species and that the only difference was that this new spider was a good deal larger the the previous specimen and again would we take it.

This we did.

Phoneutria sp. commonly known as wandering spiders are a genus of highly venomous and extremely aggressive spiders found in tropical south and central America. They are members of the family Ctenidae. The genus contains at least eight scientifically described species. Wandering spiders are so-called because they wander the jungle floor at night rather than ambushing prey from a hidden lair or spinning a web. The Brazilian wandering spider appears in Guinness World Record from 2010 to present as the worlds most venomous spider.   

We receive all manner of seemingly unusual inverts, from native caterpillars  (which should be released!) to a black widow found on the back seat of a car from an automobile shipped from Arizona, the latter now being found quite often in the UK, although they do not yet seem to have viably extended their range from the continent. In all honesty though I can say that, at least in and around Coventry, the Brazilian wandering spider has become a more likely possibility to be discovered in ones shopping. 

The above mentioned live specimen found its way to the Co-op supermarket store in Coventry and had to be collected and returned to Fyffes plc. 

This is potentially life threatening news as this species is far more dangerous than the widow spiders which are very venomous but quite placid whereas the Brazilian wandering spider has got the attitude to match its extreme toxicity, and they do like to travel.

Andy has kindly invited me to visit Fyffes plc in Coventry to investigate further.