{"id":235832,"date":"2025-10-31T11:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T11:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/235832\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T11:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T11:47:12","slug":"rare-purseweb-spider-discovered-by-visitor-at-kinver-edge-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/235832\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare purseweb spider discovered by visitor at Kinver Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard PriceWest Midlands<\/p>\n

\"MatthewMatthew Rigby<\/p>\n

The rare spider has never been spotted in Staffordshire or Worcestershire before, National Trust bosses say<\/p>\n

A rare species of spider has been spotted at a National Trust conservation site, in what the charity believes is the first such sighting in the area.<\/p>\n

Just in time for Halloween, bosses said a visitor at Kinver Edge on the Staffordshire-Worcestershire border saw the secretive purseweb spider.<\/p>\n

The eight-legged critter is sometimes called Britain’s “mini-tarantula” and was found in heathland around Kingsford Heath.<\/p>\n

Bosses said the tunnel-building spider had made a home in the diverse landscape, which was maintained to support nature and wildlife.<\/p>\n

“As we were walking up through the heathland, I just noticed this very strange-looking spider,” said Matthew Rigby, who discovered the creature.<\/p>\n

He put the photo through an AI app to help identify it, he added.<\/p>\n

“I think this is the most excited I’ve been, finding anything on Kinver,” he added.<\/p>\n

The British Arachnological Society describes the purseweb spider as “scarce”<\/a>. Most sightings are in the south of England, though there are “scattered outposts” elsewhere, it added.<\/p>\n

Kingsford Heath was restored by Worcestershire County Council about two decades ago, with its ongoing management now the responsibility of the National Trust.<\/p>\n

The trust said heathland was characterised by wide, open landscape, with scattered trees and low shrubs, such as gorse, heather and grasses.<\/p>\n

The sandy soils provide an ideal habitats for lots of invertebrates, including the purseweb spider, they said.<\/p>\n

‘Regionally significant’<\/p>\n

National Trust rangers care for Kinver Edge by grazing livestock and cutting vegetation to control invasive plants to stop them being over-taken by bracken, scrub or woodland.<\/p>\n

National Trust countryside manager Ewan Chapman said the purseweb spider was a fascinating but elusive species.<\/p>\n

“It spends most of its life underground, hiding in a silk-lined burrow capped with a camouflaged ‘purse’ of web.<\/p>\n

“Unsuspecting insects walking over the surface are ambushed and dragged below.”<\/p>\n

He added: “The discovery of the spider is regionally significant, as well as being a good indicator that our work to restore the heath on Kinver Edge is really paying off.<\/p>\n

“It also goes to show the important role that our visitors can play by recording and sharing their wildlife sightings with us,” said nature conservation adviser Andy Perry.<\/p>\n

Conservationists were now hoping to restore an area of conifer plantation, he added, with the aim of stopping the extinction of rare species on the site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richard PriceWest Midlands Matthew Rigby The rare spider has never been spotted in Staffordshire or Worcestershire before, National…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-235832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}