THIS is the little lady who sparked a scare when she and a chum dropped out of Robin Ward’s car 10 months after he imported it from the United States.

Yesterday Mr Ward told how first one infamous black widow spider, pictured right, emerged out of the depths of his classic 1964 Ford Falcon, then her fellow female dropped near mechanic Anthony McGladdery’s head.

The spiders are venomous but not lethal and are now settling in at Bristol Zoo.

Mr Ward imported the car in from California in January and last week he and Mr McGladdery started to strip it down for restoration so Mr Ward could compete in historic car races in Europe.

Mr McGladdery shouted to his boss Mr Ward, who owns racing car support firm Damax, based in Poundon, near Bicester, that he had spotted the first spider under the fuel tank.

The pair caught it and were able to identify it as a dangerous black widow from the distinctive red hourglass markings on its under-belly.

Mr Ward said: “I checked up on the internet and identified it as a black widow.

“I wanted the spiders to be re-homed rather than killed, so we spoke to Cotswold Wildlife Park and they suggested Bristol Zoo.”

But just when the pair thought they were safe, another spider dropped out of the car.

Mr Ward said: “We had carried on stripping the car and the mechanic was lying underneath taking out the dashboard when another spider dropped out by his head.

“That scared him a bit. Black widows are quite timid, but if you attack them they will want to kill you.

“We would have never found either of the spiders had we not completely stripped the car, but we’ve finished it now and are 100 per cent certain there are no more.”

The spiders were about 1.5 inches long and experts at Bristol Zoo said they probably came over spiderlings and survived at the garage by eating flies and bugs.

Mark Bushell, of Bristol Zoo, said: “They are fully grown adults now, if a little bit thin, but we’ll feed them up and they will be perfectly happy and healthy here.

“Black widow spiders are not as deadly as people think as we now have the medicine to treat the effects of the spiders’ venom.

“Having said that, they could still do some quite serious harm and their bite would certainly cause health problems.”

One of the spiders is now living in the zoo’s black widow spider exhibit, and the other is understood to be used for breeding.

The spiders have not yet been named, but the zoo is planning to hold a competition asking people to come up with names for them.