Species Account for Heliophanus auratus

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Status: NR;VU

Essex RDB: Listed
Threat: Essex Vulnerable

Records: 43

First Record: 1956

Latest Record: 2024

1992-on hectads: 4

Pre-1992 hectads: 4

Total hectads: 6

Additional Phenology Data

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Heliophanus auratus

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Essex Red Data List comment
Only known from shingle in Blackwater and Colne estuaries.

Species text
This very rare jumping spider is restricted in Britain to the Colne/Blackwater Estuaries and a single 1999 record for Arne, Dorset. It was first recorded in Britain at Colne Point by the Flatford Mill Spider Group in the period 1958-61 (Cooke 1962), but has never been refound there despite searches. It was first discovered at Shinglehead Point, Tollesbury Wick by P.R. Harvey in 1987 and Adrian Knowles collected two males at the same location in August 2001 (EECOS 2001). Other British records are restricted to the southern side of the Blackwater, where the Essex Spider Group found it to be numerous on a small region of shingle at Steeple Creek in 1987 and 1988, and a single female was collected at Bradwell by Roger Payne in 1998. At the Dorset location the spider was found on a narrow sparsely vegetated shingle strip between saltmarsh and Poole Harbour (Harvey et al. 2002). At Tollesbury Wick in 2004 it was found in very large numbers on the shell bank to the south of Piers Marsh, where it not only occurred on the shell substrate but was also swept from Sea Beet and other vegetation. It was also found in smaller numbers at other shell banks on the seaward side of the seawall along the reserve as far as Shinglehead Point. References

Habitats

Recorded management for locations with Heliophanus auratus

Recorded substrate and hydrology for locations with Heliophanus auratus

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Interpretation of distribution maps