A rare spider species thought to be extinct in the UK has been rediscovered on the Isle of Wight after more than four decades.
The Aulonia albimana, newly dubbed the “white-knuckled wolf spider” for its pale leg joints, was found at the National Trust’s Newtown nature reserve by entomologists Mark Telfer and Graeme Lyons. The tiny spider, last recorded in 1985, was spotted in the final minutes of a four-hour search on a remote site accessible only by boat.
The discovery was made in an area restored by Hebridean sheep grazing, which helped create the short, sunlit turf the spider prefers.
Helen Smith of the British Arachnological Society called it “one of Britain’s lost species rediscoveries of the century.” Conservationists now plan to study the population and ensure the species’ long-term survival.
National Trust manager Paul Davies said the find was proof that years of careful habitat management were “paying off with the return of a species this rare.”
