We began to identify the spiders we found on a casual basis in late 2009 and continue to devote most of our recording time to the NNR's coleoptera and lepidoptera.

One species we quickly came across was Zora silvestris. This relatively uninspiring spider, is now also one of the country's rarest, based on the available data held by the British Arachnological Society.

Nationally, this spider is known only from very few sites and is currently assigned RDB2 status. In view of it's current status within the UK, perhaps RDB1 status is likely at some date in the future. Known sites include Hurt Wood in Surrey in 1953, Iken Heath in East Suffolk in 1955, Ambersham Common in West Sussex in 1969 and Sherwood Forest from 1978 onwards. (Source:- The British Arachnological Society Spider Recording Scheme)

We have also noted several individuals sunning themselves on fence posts in the early Spring of 2010 here.

Adults have more recently been found to particularly favour a small area where the grass was recently scraped away to encourage additional Heather growth. Cut Oak/Birch scrub re-growth placed over the area, plus the light accumulation of dry leaf litter, seems to have provided the ideal habitat for Zora silvestris, with six adults found at the end of May 2012, but the extremely similar Zora spinimana is also found here too.

Before proceeding further, we must point out that the correct identification of most spiders in the field is not always possible without microscopic examination of key features. Some species can be identified from good quality photographs that allow key ID features to be seen well, but in practice, getting useful photographs for this purpose of identification in the field is virtually impossible. One of the key determining ID features is the number of pairs of ventral spines on metatarsi 1 and 2. In Z. silvestris there are two pairs of spines, whilst Z. spinimana has three pairs. These are not usually visible from photographs.