00:01Around 700 different species of spider live in Britain, with 109 different types recorded in Leeds alone.
00:08The Leeds Discovery Centre is home to an array of amazing arachnids, and their regular events, including frightening phobias workshops,
00:16give visitors a chance to face their fears and perhaps learn to love what they're initially scared of.
00:21As one of the natural science curators here at Leeds Discovery Centre, my main responsibility is to look after our specimens,
00:28of which there are around about 800,000.
00:32A large portion of those specimens is our insect and arachnid collection, which I'm here to show you today.
00:39Many of these are exotic species, species that you wouldn't actually find here in the UK,
00:44but some of those ones have actually been found here in the UK in supermarkets,
00:49where they were found already deceased and have been donated to the collection.
00:53So those consist of a few of our dried specimens here, but we also have some wet specimens.
01:01As spiders more frequent this year, Leeds Discovery Centre are keen to highlight the creatures are simply on the lookout for love,
01:07whilst also providing one of the natural world's most effective forms of pest control.
01:12A lot of people are noticing an influx of spiders this year, and that's actually due to the warm weather that we've had earlier in the year.
01:19So during the spring, it was a little bit warmer, it was a little bit drier, and that improves the insect populations.
01:26And obviously, that's what spiders are eating.
01:28So they've managed to mature a bit quicker, and that's why we're seeing them in our homes a little bit more or a little bit earlier this year.
01:34So that's because that's the males just going around our houses looking for a mate, as it's quite a season at the moment.
01:43Here at Leeds Discovery Centre, we do weekly tours where the public are able to come in and have a look around.
01:48I do often find that the public are really interested in looking at the arachnids and the spiders within that collection.
01:55Whether that's just a bit of a jump scare thing, I'm not sure, but they do always divide opinions.
02:00So it's always a good talking point here.
02:03A lot of people are scared of spiders. That's just a social norm.
02:07Whether that's been passed on from our ancestors who had more reason to be fearful of spiders,
02:13or whether it's just something, they're a little bit spooky, they've got spindly legs, that might be it.
02:20Strangely, I'm actually okay with spiders. I don't overly want them to be crawling all over me, but I'm okay with them.
02:26There are other species of arachnids that I find a little bit scarier, like scorpions, for example.
02:32So spiders have these appendages at the front of their body called pedipalps,
02:36and a lot of people think that they're fangs and think they're a bit scary, but they're actually just sensory organs.
02:40Whereas those same organs or those same appendages in scorpions, they're the pincers.
02:47So that's why I find scorpions much scarier.
02:49Also, if I see a spider crawl across the floor in my living room, I'm not going to be too worried.
02:54If I saw a scorpion crawl across the floor in my living room, that's going to be a cause for concern.
03:00I know that I'm not going to be too worried.
03:15But I saw that.
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