Rare spider comes back from brink of being extinct

16 February 2009
Yorkshire Post
(c) 2009 Johnston Publishing Limited

One of Britain's rarest spiders has crawled back from the brink of extinction through a programme of captive breeding and reintroduction and preserving its habitat.

Numbers of the the UK ladybird spider, named because of the bright red and black markings on the male during mating season, shrank to a few dozen individuals on a single site.

A "web-count" on the patch of Dorset heathland in 1994 revealed there were just 56 ladybird spiders left.

But conservation efforts, including habitat management of heathland, scrub clearance and captive breeding and introductions have increased numbers to around 1000 spiders in the latest web count.The small spider spends most of its life underground, living a solitary existence in a silk-lined burrow with a web over the entrance.

The spiders attack a range of large beetles, bees and wasps and drag them underground, but can also leave the burrow and chase prey.Independent environment organisation Natural England carried out conservation efforts with the Ministry of Defence, Herpetological Conservation Trust, the Forestry Commission, Dudley Zoo and members from the British Arachnological Society under the agency's species recovery programme.

Conservation has focused on captive breeding and relocation of small numbers of ladybird spiders to suitable heathland areas in Dorset, which are managed to preserve the habitat.Dr Helen Phillips, chief executive of Natural England, said: "Heathland habitats have become increasingly fragmented and degraded in recent decades, placing the fate of many of our species in the balance.

"There is nothing inevitable about this and no reason why we should simply accept biodiversity loss as an unfortunate price of 21st century life.

"The success of the ladybird spider recovery programme shows what can be done."