Some interesting spider records for 1999-2000
Then there are species that are either more or less confined in the county to the East Thames Corridor,
or are especially abundant in that region. A good example is the ant-feeding spider Zodarion italicum
whose British distribution is concentrated in the corridor (Harvey 1999b). Another example is the
Nationally Scarce (Notable A) jumping spider Bianor aurocinctus whose current distribution in the
Essex and the East Thames Corridor is shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. Distribution of the Nationally Scarce
jumping spider Bianor aurocinctus in Essex
and the East Thames Corridor
There is also the 'wasp' spider Argiope bruennichi which was first recorded in Britain as far back as
1922 in Rye (Locket & Millidge 1951), and for many years it was known only from a few areas close
to the coast in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Dorset. However even in the 1970s there was evidence
of its spread in Dorset (Merrett 1979) and records as far back as 1965 in East Cornwall have corne
to light (Smithers 1992). A record from Derbyshire in 1996 was assumed to be an accidental import,
but in 1997 the spider was found both in the very south of Essex and at Alphamstone almost into
Suffolk (Ruffell 1997). The spider is now known to be widespread in south Essex and the East
Thames Corridor (Harvey 2000) and remarkably the author has recently been given details of a
sighting near Bexley, north Kent in 1965 confirmed by a photograph. There is a strong implication
that the present distribution in the West Country and the East Thames Corridor originate from nuclei
dating at least this far back. The current distribution in Essex and north Kent is shown in fig. 4.
Fig. 4. Distribution of the 'wasp' spider Argiope
bruennichi in Essex and north Kent
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 18 (2001)
77