{"id":351795,"date":"2026-03-18T01:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/351795\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T01:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:56:12","slug":"study-conducted-in-mayo-makes-new-discovery-about-venomous-spiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/351795\/","title":{"rendered":"Study conducted in Mayo makes new discovery about venomous spiders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773798972_545_imengine.public.prod.cmg.infomaker.io.jpeg\" alt=\"\" itemprop=\"image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n    Published:<br \/>\n    Tue 17 Mar 2026, 9:04 AM\n  <\/p>\n<p class=\"ew-body\">Scientists have found that noble false widow spiders, capable of delivering venomous bites that are dangerous to humans, make up more than a third of spiders found in urban habitats across Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ew-body\">The study was carried out by scientists at the Dugon Venom Systems Lab at the University of Galway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ew-body\">It recorded the species in Mayo and Sligo for the first time, adding to its previously documented presence in 16 other counties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ew-body\">The authors said the spider has \u201crapidly expanded its distribution and the density of its populations throughout Ireland since its establishment around the late 1990s.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ew-body\">To examine its spread, researchers surveyed spider populations in six urban areas \u2014 Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Galway, Sligo and Castlebar \u2014 over an 11-month period.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ew-body\">The noble false widow, or Steatoda nobilis, is a shiny brown spider with a rounded abdomen marked with pale, skull-like patterns. It is typically found around buildings and garden structures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ew-body\">Females grow to about 1.4cm in body length, while males are slightly smaller.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ew-body\">The team studied spiders living on 10-metre sections of fences around buildings and public spaces and carried out surveys at night, when spiders are most active.<\/p>\n<p>\n    Published:<br \/>\n    Tue 17 Mar 2026, 9:04 AM\n  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published: Tue 17 Mar 2026, 9:04 AM Scientists have found that noble false widow spiders, capable of delivering&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-351795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}