Rare Spiders from the Doncaster Area
Colin A. Howes
During 1969 it became necessary, for the purpose of conservation, to document the natural history of the various sites in the Doncaster area. Extensive collecting was carried out during the year with some attention being paid to the Arachnida which, for some time, has been a grossly neglected group in Yorkshire, with a significant paucity of records from the eastern part of V.C. 63. Preliminary collecting on Thorne Moors – 7,000 acres of acid bog, sallow carr and fen of great botanical and entomological importance – together with limited work on the recolonised gravel pits in Blaxton Common, soon revealed several interesting spiders.
Singa pygmaea (Sundevall, 1831) a startlingly conspicuous species with a glossy, humbug-like, brown and yellow abdomen, was taken by E. W. Aubrook from an area of Holcus sp. At Blaxton Comme on the 25th June. This represented a new V.C. 63 record and only the third record for Yorkshire, having been collected twice before on Allerthorpe Common. The first record was of a female collected by T. Stainforth in June 1920, followed by another female collected during a Y.N.U. Field Meeting 6th June 1927.
Although most of Thorne and its contiguous moors is basically acid bog, a history of peat cutting has provided many ‘micro habitats’ ranging from the dry Bracken and Birch-clad peat banks, to the flooded, freshly-dug, peat workings with every stage of the hydrosere from open water to Birch-dominated moor. Resulting from the subtle variations in habitat, the arachnid fauna, though characteristic of peat bog conditions, seems remarkably varied. To date, some eleven species of Lycosid (wolf) spiders have been separated from those so far collected. A noteworthy species was a female Pirata piscatorius (Clerk) collected on 10th August – a new record for V.C. 63 and only the second record for Yorkshire, the first being a female collected on Allerthorpe Common by T. Stainforth in 1919.
As striking as the myriads of Lycosid spiders, so characteristic of the Thorne Moors ground fauna, were the huge Aranea. Seven species were in evidence from July to October, their enormous webs, exceeding in six feet in diameter in the case of A. quadratus (Clerck), stretching between the young birch, sallow and oak saplings and the taller growths of Calluna and Vaccinium. Almost predictably the spectacular yellow and chocolate Araneus marmoreus var pyramidatus (Clerck) was present in abundance from, August to October. Although widespread in Britain, being recorded in some thirty counties, this is a rather uncommon and local spider, seeming to require conditions where acid bog or moor is being colonised by birch. In V.C. 63 it is only known from Thorne Moors, specimens being collected during the Y.N.U. visit to the area on 3rd August 1946. Other Yorkshire localities are Bishop Wood, Grass Wood and Dalton Lane in V.C. 64; Strensall Common in V.C. 62; and Allerthorpe Common and Skipwith Common in V.C. 62.
The very rare Araneus marmoreus (Clerk) was frequently met with among taller growths of Calluna and Vaccinium and low shrubby birches. Apart from being a new record for V.C. 63, the occurrence of A. marmoreus (Clerck) on Thorne Moors represents only the third British locality, all of which are in Yorkshire – others being Allerthorpe Common and Skipwith Common.
It is clear from the results of limited and largely casual collecting during 1969, that a closer study of the area mentioned would undoubtedly reveal other rare and interesting species.
References
Braham A. C. (1946). Y.N.U. visit to Thorne Waste. Nat., 12.
Bristow (1932—49). The Comity of Spiders Vol I & II. Ray Society: London.
Falconer W. (1920). Y.N.U. Arachnida Report for 1919. Nat. 43.
Greyer T. (1956). Spider at Allerthorpe Common. Nat. 12
Locket G. H. & Millidge A. F. (1951-53) British Spiders Vol I & II. Ray Society: London.