A pensioner thinks he may have found one of the world’s deadliest spiders in Britain lurking outside his garden shed in Gloucestershire.Experts say the highly venomous Funnel-web, a native species to Australia, has never been found in Britain.
His footage shows the black spider with distinctive white strips on its upper legs preying on a hummingbird hawk moth outside his home.
He found the beast when he went to fetch his lawn mower.
'It's terrifying to think I was so close to what could have been such a poisonous spider,' Mr Fryer told thisisgloucestershire.co.uk.
Mr Fryer, who has spent a lifetime working as a shepherd, knows a thing or two about wildlife, but he was totally baffled by the huge creepy crawly in his garden.
‘It was the middle of the day and to begin with I just thought it was a leaf,’ he said.
‘When I saw it was starting to move I was less than one metre away from it. I'd never seen anything like it. I dashed into the house to get my camera.’
Spider expert Mark Bushell, assistant curator of invertebrates at Bristol Zoo Gardens, thinks that the chances of it being a Funnel-web are slim.
He said: ‘I'd be very surprised if it was a Funnel-web spider, but it may be a tube web spider which is common across Europe and has a similar web to a funnel web spider.’
‘They have a bite which feels like a bee sting but has no lasting effects.’
Funnel-web facts:
*Funnel-web spiders are between two and seven centimetres in length.
*They are one of the most aggressive spiders on the planet, and strike repeatedly if even slightly provoked.
*Their bite is so powerful they can penetrate a human nail.
*Around 60 people have died from Funnel-web bites, but none since an anti-venom was concocted in 1981.
*They’re mostly found within a 160km radius of Sydney.
*Bite symptoms include mouth numbness, vomiting, abdominal pain, sweating and salivation.
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