Pauline Smith, a shopper in Montrose, Scotland, discovered an unexpected egg sac on her bananas from Aldi. Upon closer inspection, she found spider silk and identified a mound of eggs. Using a microscope, she noticed a squashed hatchling and shared her findings with a spider group online. Experts tentatively identified the egg sac as belonging to the Acanthoctenus genus, known for its arboreal wandering spiders, which are believed to pose no threat to humans, unlike the more dangerous Brazilian wandering spider.
When I was putting my shopping into the car, I noticed debris stuck to the banana, and on taking a closer look, I realised it was spider silk with bits of leaf.
On returning home, I was excited to look at the nest and eggs in more detail using a hand lens and microscope, and I took some photos.
Almost immediately, I had an ID of one of the arboreal wandering spiders; Acanthoctenus does seem likely.
Though the deadly Brazilian wandering spider is part of the same family, Acanthoctenus venom poses no threat to humans.
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