Critically endangered white-knuckled wolf spider rediscovered on Isle of Wight

Environment
30 Oct 2025 • 6:02 PM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

The world’s most free-thinking newspaper

image is not available

  • A critically endangered spider, Aulonia albimana, informally named the white-knuckled wolf spider, has been rediscovered on the Isle of Wight.
  • The tiny orange-legged arachnid was last recorded in the UK in 1985, marking its return after four decades.
  • Entomologists Mark Teller and Graeme Lyons made the discovery at the National Trust’s Newtown National Nature Reserve.
  • The team located the spider in a remote, overgrown area accessible only by boat, approximately 2km from its former colony.
  • This rediscovery is hailed as a major conservation success and one of Britain's epic “lost species” rediscoveries of the century.

IN FULL