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Zodarion rubidum Simon, 1914 (Araneae: Zodariidae),
a spider new to Britain and Essex
PETER HARVEY
32 Lodge Lane, Grays, EssexRM16 2YP
The author has been working through spider
pitfall trap material from many woodland sites
in the Epping Forest area for ecologist Paul
Mabbott. In early 1999 a tube was sent of
spiders collected in July 1997 from Temple
Mills, Leyton in the London Borough of
Waltham Forest, part of the Watsonian South
Essex recording area. The contents included a
Zodarion female and turning it over the author
expected to find the East Thames Corridor
speciality Z italicum. However it was a
different species and reference to Bosnians
(1997) showed the likely candidate to be Z
rubidum or possibly Z fuscum, another
species recently discovered in Britain by
Martin Askins in Wiltshire. With his usual
remarkable turnaround by return post the
national expert Peter Merrett identified the
specimens as Z rubidum.
The material collected by Paul Mabbott
contained a total of two female Zodarion
rubidum and one immature together with two
male Xerolycosa nemoralis, a scarce spider in
Essex. The formerly extensive site consists of
railway marshalling yards, mostly abandoned.
The London Ecology Unit Handbook No. 11
Nature Conservation in Waltham Forest gives
details of the history of the site. In 1840 the
Northern & Eastern Railway opened from
Stratford to Broxbourne along the Lea Valley,
a siding being connected to one of the last of
the several mills winch had at various times
stood on or near the site since at least the 13d'
century. Extensions to the sidings were made
and the layout was modernised in the late
1950s, but decline in rail-freight caused
closure for the marshalling yard and most
tracks were lifted in the mid-1980s.
The author has recently been able to visit the
site and the spider is still present in some
numbers. The habitat consists of ruderal
vegetation and scrub developed on a substrate
of old dry railway ballast which ranges in size
from coarse stones to finer material. An
adjacent grassland area turned up Zodarion
italicum - this must be the first British locality
known to hold two Zodarion species!
There is no public access to the site, where the
construction of a new road is taking place.
With the co-operation of the London Borough
of Waltham Forest and the road contractors it
seems probable that the spider will survive.
BOSMANS, R. 1997. Revision of the genus Zodarion Walckenaer, 1833. part II. Western and central
Europe. including Italy (Araneae: Zodariidae). Bull. Br. Arachnol. Soc. 10 (8), 265-294.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 16(1999)