CAN you believe a brightly coloured octoped such as this is completely harmless?
Just one week before Hallowe'en, this hairy spider certainly put the willies up mother-of-five Tina Dorling when she made its acquaintance on a Fyfield country road.
"The first thing you think is because it has a red back, it might be dangerous, but now that I know the truth about it being harmless, I am relieved because I let it go," the Moreton Road resident told the Gazette.
The drama unfolded last week as she was heading to visit a friend.
She recalled: "I was driving on the Norwood End road heading to see my friend Suzi, when in front of me, there was a council truck and two workmen blocking the road.
"After a while of sitting there I got out and said 'have you broken down?' and they said 'no, we are looking at the spider on the road'."
And there it was – Araneus quadratus, which has been known to offer a nasty nip, although it produces no venom.
Ms Dorling said the beast was no bigger than a 50 pence piece.
"One of the workers had a bit of paper and the spider was going up on its back legs and trying to attack it," she added.
In the heat of the moment the housewife even considered trying to trap the arachnid.
"I had an empty Coke bottle and I said 'shall we try to put it in it', but they said 'leave it, leave it'.
"Later my friend told me you should never touch anything if you don't know what it is, it could have shot up my arm or anything."
When the unexpected episode was over, Ms Dorling admitted she thought it could have been a killer spider because of its colouring and "strange markings."
But Stuart Hine, from the Natural History Museum, confirmed the creature was not dangerous.
He said: "This is a female example of Araneus quadratus.
"It is a common and widespread species in the UK and one of our larger orb web spiders.
"They vary considerably in colour and hue and they are able to give a nip if handled roughly but are otherwise harmless.
"They are of course usually to be found in the middle of an orb web, which makes them altogether more conspicuous when observed crawling along a footpath."