A group of volunteers found a rare drumming wolf spider in Heeze this week. On Somerenseweg, this group brings frogs and salamanders safely to the other side of the road every morning. The special spider suddenly found itself in one of the buckets. The drumming wolf spider is an endangered species and was named European Spider of the Year last year.
The spider was found in a bucket along the Somerenseweg. It is one of nineteen buckets that is part of an annual job by a group of volunteers from the region, to get as many amphibians as possible safely across the road. Because it is almost breeding time, frogs and salamanders, among others, flock to a piece of breeding water. But if they cross the road themselves, they are often killed by a car.
But not only frogs and salamanders fall into those buckets. “We regularly find other things. Spiders, beetles, ants and centipedes,” sums up Hans Teeven of IVN. And last week a drum wolf spider.
The volunteer did not immediately realize that the spider was special. “Because I like insects, I temporarily collect some in a container. Then I take a picture of them and release them again.” Teeven puts the photos on a page observation website. “There I suddenly read that the spider was rare. That is also nice for the volunteers to know.”
Drumming on dry leaves
The drum wolf spider belongs to the wolf spider family. The drumming wolf spider gets its name from the noise males make to entice females. They then drum on dry leaves. That sound can also be heard by people at a distance of meters.
It is an endangered species. The drumming wolf spider mainly lives in moist areas, such as swamps, wet meadows, peat or moist forests. There are fewer and fewer such areas, which means that the drumming wolf spider is having a hard time in many countries.
This spider was named Spider of the Year last year. This has been decided by 84 spider experts from 27 European countries. The spider was called a special specimen, partly because of the drumming sound it makes. In addition, the endangered species shows the effects of climate change because its habitat is disappearing. The hope is that more people will now have an eye for the spider.
Even more discoveries
The volunteers made even more special discoveries in Heeze last week. For example, there was a marsh clam biter in one of the buckets. That’s some kind of beetle. In the coming weeks, the group will remain busy with the transfer of the amphibians, so who knows, there may be more finds in the offing.
Listen to the sound of the drumming wolf spider here: