A deadly black widow spider with the potential to kill is now part of the collection at a UK museum after hitching a ride to the UK in a box of supermarket grapes. The black and red arachnid, measuring roughly 4cm (1.5inches), has a toxic bite that can lead to chest pains in just 15 minutes, before seizures and numbness may set in.
And though most will recover from the spider’s venom, young children and older people are thought to be most at risk of losing their lives to the feared eight-legged creature. The black widow, currently on display at Leeds Discovery Centre, arrived in a nearby supermarket in 1991 after sneaking into a box of fruit.
While it is not known if the tiny spider survived its trip, its body was later donated to Leeds Museums and Galleries to be preserved in a jar of concentrated alcohol. It’s just one of the hundreds of other species from around the world in the collection, including Brazilian wandering spiders, scorpions, deep sea fish and an octopus.
