Giant House Spider

Description:

Quite large spider, the body length around 20mm, with long elegant legs - I estimate the leg span on about 6cm. In its shelter and from a bit away and under the artificial light, it appears black (and nasty...). However, in pics and when I increased the volume of light in shadows, I could see that it was mainly grey-brown, with some small hairs on the body and legs, and that legs present a succession of darker and lighter brown rings.

Habitat:

Found in rural suburbs if Lyon, east-central France, in a garden bordering a broadleaved forest. Found mid-winter, in a manhole with water connection for the neighbouring house.

Notes:

1.) I'm not very sure which species of Eratigena this could be. At first I ID-ed it as Eratigena atrica, but on further research, I've found out that (please refer to Wikipedia link for more details) that this species was split into three species now: E. atrica, E. duellica and E. saeva and that they resemble each other. 2.) The old name of this genus, still in use in various documents, is Tegenaria. 3.) I treated this particular manhole already, in my previous spotting of Fire Salamanders (https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/84...). This time we went back to the same spot, and found, once again, the group of salamanders hibernating there along this spider - this spotting is coming soon too.