With this year’s focus on identifying spiders, I’m getting better at being close to them but this large beast did give me pause. Fortunately, it wasn’t in my house or any other enclosed space; I spotted it sitting on an external house wall as I walked along a street. After consulting a local with good spider knowledge, I can confirm this is the tube web spider Segestria florentina, though its chelicerae (fanged mouthparts) are not the shiny green colour described in my guide book. Perhaps that was just due to the light conditions when I photographed it.

Segestria florentina usually lives in a tube-shaped web, tucked in a hole in a wall or amongst rocks, speeding out to grab its prey when it passes the hole. You definitely wouldn’t want to poke your finger in its hole, as it does have a venomous bite, though apparently it’s not dangerous, and the spider’s only found in the south of the UK. If you want to know more, the iNaturalist website has a good article and excellent photos.