Deadly black widow spider goes on display at Leeds Discovery Centre after hitching ride in supermarket grapes

The black and red arachnid, measuring roughly 4cm (1.5inches), has a toxic bite that can lead to chest pains in just 15 minutes, before seizures and numbness may set in.

And though most will recover from the spider's venom, young children and older people are thought to be most at risk of losing their lives to the feared eight-legged creature.

The black widow, currently on display at Leeds Discovery Centre, arrived in a nearby supermarket in 1991 after sneaking into a box of fruit.

While it is not known if the tiny spider survived its trip, its body was later donated to Leeds Museums and Galleries to be preserved in a jar of concentrated alcohol.

It's just one of the hundreds of other species from around the world in the collection, including Brazilian wandering spiders, scorpions, deep sea fish and an octopus.

The liquid in which the animals are preserved means they must be kept in a specialist area, which is ventilated to prevent the build-up of potentially harmful fumes.

But those fumes are not the only hazard in "Store 2", which also houses a collection of radioactive materials, each of which is regularly assessed using a Geiger counter.

Clare Brown, Leeds Museums and Galleries curator of natural sciences, said: "There's a natural sense of mystery and curiosity around Store 2 and the objects inside, and they've certainly been safely locked away for good reason.

"But each object has also been collected and kept safe because they tell us something important about our history and the world around us.

"The black widow, for example, is a fascinating creature with a fearsome reputation.

"But the story behind this particular specimen also demonstrates how the scope and scale of global food production and transportation has affected the lives and behaviours of native species all over the world.

"Studying these hazardous objects very carefully can offer curators a unique insight into everything from natural history and geology right through to mass production and social trends, and hopefully, we can pass some of those fascinating lessons on to our visitors."

Because of the nature of its contents, access to Store 2 is restricted to trained members of staff and is off-limits to the public.

But visitors to the Discovery Centre, which is open for tours by appointment, can still see an array of insects and arachnids.

They include a banana spider which arrived from the West Indies along with an egg sac containing 350 tiny spiderlings and a number of Indian scorpions of various sizes.

Councillor Jonathan Pryor, Leeds City Council's executive member for economy, culture and education, said: "Every year, our museums host an incredible array of events, displays and exhibitions which welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors.

"But it is this painstaking, behind-the-scenes research and work which goes on every day that makes those exhibitions possible and which ensures Leeds is home to a truly world-class collection of objects."

Leeds Discovery Centre is home to more than a million objects and is used to store parts of the Leeds collection which are not currently on display, spanning tens of millions of years of world history.