Gnaphosidae - Ground spiders

All images on this website have been taken in Leicestershire and Rutland by NatureSpot members. We welcome new contributions - just register and use the Submit Records form to post your photos. Click on any image below to visit the species page. The RED / AMBER / GREEN dots indicate how easy it is to identify the species - see our Identification Difficulty page for more information. A coloured rating followed by an exclamation mark denotes that different ID difficulties apply to either males and females or to the larvae - see the species page for more detail.

Spiders

Spiders are in the class Arachnida together with harvestmen, mites and ticks. They all have 8 legs and can produce silk. Most have fangs able to inject venom into their prey. In Britain there are over 650 species of spiders - most of these are small and secretive and consequently overlooked by the majority of people.

Click on the headings below to expand/contract the text.

Leicestershire and Rutland resources

None known.

Useful websites and publications

Arachno.Piwigo by P. Oger - this excellent site covers UK species plus continental European spider.

Eurospiders - high quality images of many species (not just British).

Britain's Spiders: A Field Guide (Wild Guides) Second Edition - This is a guide to all 38 of the British families, focussing on spiders that can be identified in the field. Illustrated with a remarkable collection of photographs, it is designed to be accessible to a wide audience, including those new to spider identification.

Spiders (Collins Field Guide, Roberts) - despite the brand, this isn't a very useful in the field but does have excellent coverage of palp and epigyne details for those who are able to examine specimens.

If you know of other websites or books that you would recommend, do let us know: info@naturespot.co.uk