Citizen science is when members of the public can become involved and play a very important role in real scientific research. Often, this is collecting data from all over the country. During the summer, Lab_13 Irchester took part in a citizen science project called the Big Butterfly Count and now The Society of Biology have launched a new app that allows children and adults to become involved in citizen spider science!
With this new app, called “Spider in da house” when children spot a house spider inside their home they can quickly submit their sighting and a photo. This will help scientists record numbers and species of house spiders in this country.
Interestingly, whenever you see one these big spiders running across the floor or scuttling under something it is the male. He is on the move and looking for the female who usually stays in her web waiting. Once he finds her, he stays with her in the web for a few weeks. So, if you see a big house spider sprinting across the living room, don’t scream – he’s just looking for his girlfriend. Just take a picture and send it in!
More information including links to apps is here https://www.societyofbiology.org/get-involved/biologyweek/house-spider-survey
I have a couple of pictures of ENORMOUS spiders – one in the garden, one in the house.. the garden is starting to fill with webs in the morning.. beautiful huge constructions like wide fishing nets… I’ll try and send the pictures via Ms Hogan’s email