Galway Bay fm newsroom - Researchers at NUI Galway have published the first record of the noble false widow spider feeding on a bat, anywhere in the world.
It's also the first time a member of the Theridiidae family of spiders has been recorded preying on mammals.
The discovery was made at a home in north Shropshire in England, where a man discovered bats tangled up in False Widow webs in his attic.
Experts say the False Widow, which originated in Madeira and the Canary Islands, has the potential to become one of the world's most invasive species of spider.
Over the past five years, a team at the Ryan Institute at NUI Galway has been studying the spider and how it lives and behaves in various environments.
Senior author of the study, Dr. Michel Dugon, says it's a truly remarkable species.
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