Amateur spider expert Myles Nolan has had a fascination for arachnids since he learned to crawl. He is one of the few specialists in the field in Ireland. Juliana Adelman reports
If you had to make a list of the least-loved living things, chances are spiders would be pretty close to the top. We all know they do good by eating mosquitoes and other flying menaces, but this hardly redeems them for most people, who typically find them at least a little scary.
Not so for Myles Nolan, who not only remains unafraid, but actively seeks the company of spiders. "Anywhere I go, I walk in the door and immediately scan the ceilings and walls," he says. Nolan became a spider expert by an usual route as he did not study science in college. Instead, he took an arts degree in English and Philosophy and pursued his interest in nature outside academia. "All my science studies have been \ as an amateur since taking biology for the Leaving Cert." Today, he works as a technician at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, assisting with the mounting of new exhibits, as well as expanding his knowledge of arachnids
He has been interested in insects and arachnids since childhood. "I was one of those kids who collected bugs in a matchbox from as soon as I could crawl," he says. In the last five years, however, he has begun to focus on spiders and to study them more systematically.
Despite his lack of formal training, Nolan is one of very few spider experts working in Ireland and his skills are in demand. He participated in the new survey of Clare Island, and is currently assessing the spider collection at the Natural History Museum.
Why did he choose spiders? "I was kind of drawn to them," he says. "They also seemed manageable because in the British Isles there are only about 650 species." Starting with photographic field guides, Nolan began seeking out spiders. In less than five years he has reported six species new to Ireland. One of the species Nolan recorded is an import, probably from the Canary Islands. Steatoda nobilis is a large spider with a shape similar to the black widow, which it is sometimes mistaken for.
Although this spider is not nearly as dangerous as the black widow, its bite can give you a fever and palpitations, but "nothing really bad" Nolan adds. S. nobilis has surprised scientists by living outside and adapting to the considerably colder climate of Ireland.
Although most spiders are quite small and difficult to see, their webs are more visible and often distinctive. A trained eye can determine the genus, if not the species, of the spider which made it. To most of us, spider webs probably look very similar: a few anchoring threads, a spiralling cross thread. However, not all spiders spin this type of "orb" web.
One of the more unusual webs is spun by the triangular spider or Hyptiotes paradoxus, which as suggested by its name, builds a triangular web. This species is very rare in Ireland, and has been reported only twice so far; recently in Killarney woods and at a site in Cork in 1909. As a rare species, its presence is indicative of a good habitat with a high level of species diversity.
Nolan is working on the Natural History Museum's spider collection. Wall cabinets in the uppermost gallery hold jars of spiders preserved in alcohol. Much of the Irish collection was put together in the 19th and early 20th centuries by George Carpenter, a museum employee. Nolan is verifying that each of these specimens has been properly identified and registered on the Irish species list.
Nolan realises that as an amateur scientist, he is a rarity, but has encountered "nothing but encouragement" from professional Irish naturalists. As an arachnologist he is even more rare. "Pretty things have huge numbers of amateurs," he says.
Arachnologists, however, have a plan to increase the popularity of spiders - coming up with common names for them. Some think that if more spiders had common names more people would take notice of them. And if more people noticed or, better yet, reported spiders, keeping track of these important members of Ireland's ecosystem would be a lot easier.