Yorkshire Dales - Tumblr Posts
Reclaimed
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Ooh, ooh, I want to go there!
metal sculpture of a spider in the genus Meta (Tetragnathidae) atop a building at Malham Tarn House in England’s Yorkshire Dales National Park. (📷: Wikicommons user Nilfanion)
this is a building that houses Meta spiders and allows human visitors to observe them. per a member of British Spider Identification Group, there’s a button on the exterior of the building with which people can turn on a low light with which to view the spiders through windows.
Meta spiders normally habitate caves. in or around 1999, an archaeological team working in Chapel Fell cave accidentally transported some Meta spiders from the cave to the Malham Tarn House Orchid House, which at that time was dark and damp and where the archaeological team stored their equipment. the spiders thrived there for about ten years, but then people at the National Trust planned to renovate and reopen the Orchid House. in 2009, National Trust paid workers and volunteers relocated the spider residents of Orchid House back to Chapel Fell cave. the reno plan for the Orchid House included the creation of this designated spider house near the Orchid House: educational and (wheelchair-)accessible for people (who might not otherwise be able to visit a cave) and at the same time prioritizing the safety and wellbeing of the spiders, which for example are sensitive to light.
