On this day in Yorkshire 1948

Doctors at Leeds General Infirmary are to call in the help of an entomologist in an effort to identify a large spider which is thought to have bitten a Hunslet woman, 36-year-old Mrs. Edna Hanson, Peel Street, on her hand when she was taking bananas from a box at her husband’s greengrocery shop in Pearson Street, Hunslet, last night.

Though no puncture mark could be found on her hand, Mrs. Hanson was given anti-tetanus serum and an injection of penicillin at the Infirmary as a precaution.

Mrs. Hanson told a “Yorkshire Post” reporter last night:

“I was taking bananas out of the box when suddenly I felt a sting. I opened my hand and the spider, which was more than an inch in length and of a dappled fawn and dark brown colour, dropped on to the counter.

The spider ran under box and my husband was able to get it alive into a tumbler which he then sealed.

Afterwards a cocoon was found among other bananas in the box.

Mrs. Hanson said that the box of bananas, part of a consignment for Leeds, arrived in the city a few days ago and had since been kept in a ripening warehouse.

She thought the bananas had come from West Africa.

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