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RARE SIGHT: A male ladybird spider, the rarest spider in Britain, which is being reintroduced in heathland around the county including the Dorset Wildlife Trust Tadnoll and Winfrith nature reserve. Picture: Roger Key

BRITAIN'S rarest spider - possibly only found in Dorset - is making a triumphant return to its native heaths in the county.

The ladybird spider was thought to have been extinct in this country since 1906 but it was rediscovered at a secret Dorset location in 1979.

Now the secret site boasts such a good population that the spiders are being relocated to carefully chosen sites - including Dorset Wildlife Trust's Tadnoll and Winfrith nature reserve.

Trust reserves manager Rob Brunt said: "This is a very exciting project which we are pleased to be part of.

"It underlines the importance of nature reserves for the long-term protection of extremely rare species such as the ladybird spider."

The ladybird spider is fussy and likes patchy, well-drained, south-facing lowland heath - Thomas Hardy's Egdon Heath', for example, which was based on Studland Heath.

When that and much of the heathland in Bournemouth and Poole disappeared naturalists thought that was the end of the ladybird spider back in 1906.

But the rediscovery of the species in another part of Dorset in the 1970s, by Dr Peter Merrett of the British Arachnological Society, suggested it had in fact been more widespread. Careful management of the habitat at the secret location has enabled the relocation of ladybird spiders elsewhere around the county.

Experts say the 1979 find means the reintroduction at the Tadnoll and Winfrith nature reserve is almost certainly' a return of the native.

Naturalist and captive breeding specialist Ian Hughes is handling the relocations, a project led and funded by Natural England.

"The conditions at Tadnoll and Winfrith are perfect for the introductions this summer and I have every hope of success," he said.

The ladybird spider is not only one of the rarest in the country but also one of the most spectacular.

They are black for most of their life but, in their last autumn, the males moult into the stunning red and black that gives them their name.

12:41pm Saturday 19th July 2008

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