Rare spider discovered in nature reserve in Poole (From Bournemouth Echo)

Rare spider discovered in nature reserve in Poole

2:00pm Monday 28th February 2011 in Features By Lara Tollast

YOU WOULD have thought that finding a tiny, rare, fury animal with the markings of a friendly face on its back would have brought families flocking to see it at the Arne nature reserve in Poole.

Tony Whitehead of the RSPB said: “If this were a bird, rather like the recent oriental turtle dove, the queues would be stretching around the car park.”

So why is this tiny critter so lonely?

Perhaps it’s the fact that it also has eight legs, eight eyes, and the ability to scare Miss Muffet right off her tuffet.

The eloquently named Philodromus Margaritatus spider was discovered by RSPB volunteer Chris Emblem-English on an electricity junction box at the reserve in Poole. What makes this eight-legged beauty so special is that it had not been seen in Dorset for more than 30 years.

“This spider is something of a rarity”, Whitehead adds.

For centuries spiders have been on the receiving end of bad press, when only a small handful are capable of harming a human.

Perhaps the fear of spiders comes not only from their appearance but their cunning predatory methods. The fact they construct a web – a trap invisible to its ill-fated prey, is vindictively morbid and easily creepier than the tactics of other larger predators. If spiders were the size of Alsatians we would have fair reason to live in fear of them, so let’s thank mother nature that she made them so small.

Laura Dunne, 22 from Bournemouth says: “I don’t like them because they are so small, and it’s knowing that they could be hiding under your bed and you wouldn’t even know.”

Strange, then, that this fearful disdain is coupled with the belief that some spiders bring you luck. Money spiders are traditionally thought to bring wealth to those who cross their eight-legged path, and circling the spider around your head three times before tucking it in your pocket may make for more financial sense than buying lottery tickets.

The association between spiders and money stems from the belief that spiders attract wealth to people in the same way those spiders attract their prey. This theory dates back to the Romans, who would carry a little gold or silver spider in their pockets for good luck in trade.

Perhaps the best thing about spiders is that their eating habits stop us from being overrun with other creepy crawlies, such as disease-spreading flies. In Papa New Guinea and South America, spiders themselves are included in some traditional foods.

Eat them, fear them or fling them around your head, remember that spiders are more sacred of you than you are of them. As the old saying goes, “If you want to live and thrive then let a spider run alive”.