By Megan Clay-Jones and Paul Bignell
Sunday, 31 August 2008
Alamy
The tube web spider is now firmly established in London
Britain's climate may have been wretched for humans this summer, but foreign spider species are loving it. The population and range of exotic-looking migrants like the black and yellow striped wasp spider and poisonous false widow spider are booming and expanding as never before.
They will soon be joined by other alien insects. Stuart Hine of the Natural History Museum said: "There are plenty more to come from Europe and also from the Americas as our weather becomes more in line with hotter climates ... They are virtually queuing up to come here."
Already, the European and North African beewolf, a wasp that paralyses bees and wasps and lays eggs in them, has been decimating honey hives in south England. And last year two Asian tiger mosquitoes, which can transmit up to 23 infections, were found in a garden in Gloucestershire. Mr Hine said: "It is plausible that species of the black widow may take up residence here."
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/invasion-of-the-aliens-the-exotic-species-that-are-colonising-britain-913932.html
