Summary details for Glyphesis servulus (Simon, 1881)

Distribution

The species has very scattered records in southern England, but is more widespread in Wales. A European species with records from France, Belgium, the Netherlands and central Europe.

Habitat and ecology

G. servulus has been recorded from wet sedge litter in fens, in grass litter on damp ungrazed pasture and in bogs. It is probably adult at all seasons of the year.

Status

Until the Welsh Peatland Invertebrate Survey recorded the spider in seven sites in five vice-counties in Wales this species was regarded as being very rare. There are no recent records from Wales or from two sites in Dorset and east Sussex, but the spider is assumed to still occur.

Threats

Seral succession may destroy the habitat of this species. Water abstraction will make it difficult to maintain a high water table.

Management and conservation

Water levels need to be maintained and scrub clearance undertaken where succession is taking place. The introduction of cattle grazing might be beneficial at some sites, as long as parts of the habitat are left ungrazed as refugia and levels are sufficient to prevent scrub encroachment and maintain species-rich turf and areas of rougher tussocky grassland. Text based on Dawson, I.K., Harvey, P.R., Merrett, P. & Russell-Smith, A.R. (in prep.).