Britain’s rarest spider makes comeback, and eats mother.

June 2008.  By the early nineties the ladybird spider had almost been wiped out in Britain due to habitat loss, but now Forestry Commission wildlife experts are celebrating its burgeoning come-back. In 1993 it was thought there were as few as only 50 ladybird spiders left in the country.

The species' last stronghold in the South West was a 50-metre-wide patch of heath deep in a Forestry Commission woodland where around 30 individuals still survived. The foresters' battle to save the spiders began when they cleared rhodendron and pines from around the site to give them more breeding room. By 1996 conservationists counted 139 ladybird spider burrows as the arachnids began expanding out across the area.

Forester Laurence Degoul, said: "Now we are looking for completely new habitats into which spiders from the site can be relocated. Thanks to our extensive heathland restoration work in the county there are a lot of places to choose from. But it is crucial that we pick a spot where the conditions are absolutely perfect."

Miss Degoul said that plans had originally been in place to populate the county's heaths with spiders bred in captivity from stock imported from Denmark. But she said that Dorset's own spiders seemed to be doing so well that some of them would be selected for the move instead. The creatures get their curious name from the four ladybird-like black spots the half-inch-long males have on their bright red backs. The spiders' webs form a funnel, which provides a home at one end and a deadly trap for prey at the other where the silken threats spread out.

Hatchlings eat their mother

Female ladybird spiders lay around 80 eggs during the summer into a cocoon deep in their nests. Once hatched the spiderlings turn on their mother and eat her. The brood then heads out to establish their own territories elsewhere. It takes them up to four years to reach maturity.