Probably my best day in the field of 2025, and one of my best days in the field ever, was when Graeme Lyons came over to the island in October to help with my quest to re-find Aulonia albimana, the White-knuckled Wolf-spider - and actually found it!
Graeme's blog post about that discovery is a brilliant piece of writing, and he followed it up with a round of great interviews and TV appearances when the media picked up on the story later in the month.
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| My moment in the spotlight and it has to happen while I'm half-way through changing into my waders! |
To summarise, White-knuckled Wolf-spider had only ever been confirmed from two British sites (one in Somerset, one on the Isle of Wight), and was believed probably extinct at both, with the last sighting from Jersey Camp Firing Range in 1985. On 7th October 2025, we found two immatures at Brickfields, 1.86 km from the Jersey Camp location of 40 years earlier. We were working for the National Trust as part of the 'Isle of Wight Rare Invertebrates' Species Recovery Programme, funded by Natural England.
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| Habitat at Brickfields, photographed by Jo Hodgkins. |
There is a full account of the 2025 survey work and the re-discovery in my report to the National Trust, and I would like to publish an article in Wight Studies, Proceedings of the Isle of Wight Natural History and Archaeology Society in due course.
But the aim of today's blog post is to provide an update on White-knuckled Wolf-spider sightings in 2026.
Incidentally, Aulonia albimana did not have a widely-adopted English name prior to our re-discovery, though White-handed Wolf-spider and White-palped Wolf-spider had been floated. After the white-knuckle ride of our trip to Brickfields, Graeme Lyons invented the name ‘White-knuckled Wolf-spider’ and it is perfect. The English name references the whitish patella of the pedipalps, which is a diagnostic identification character of A. albimana in adult and immature stages.
Records in 2026
On 17th July 2026, I was suction sampling at Ningwood Common HIWWT reserve (Cranmore SSSI Unit 3) as part of survey work for caterpillars of the the Reddish Buff moth. The habitat here is very different to that at Brickfields, with Saw-wort and Molinia tussocks amidst a matrix of Gorse and other shrub species, and it lies 3.8 km south-west of Brickfields, to the west side of Newtown Harbour. I was certainly not expecting to find White-knuckled Wolf-spider but that's what I found myself looking at, in a tray of suction-samplings. In fact, I found five individuals in three samples on that first day, and then moved onto Unit 2 of the Cranmore SSSI and found a further six individuals, all in the same suction sample. They were a mixture of adults and immatures.
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| Habitat at Ningwood Common. |
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| White-knuckled Wolf-spider at Ningwood Common, with the palps hidden. |
On 22nd July, Iain Outlaw and I visited the Jersey Camp Firing Range with our suction samplers, again in search of Reddish Buff caterpillars. To the best of our knowledge, White-knuckled Wolf-spider had been discovered here in or beside a trench on the grenade throwing range, long since consumed by scrub. However, with the benefit of suction samplers, we soon found that White-knuckled Wolf-spiders were still present and living in the fabulous herb-rich grassland which covers most of the firing range. I was able to show the first one to Wesley Woolcock, Range Officer and our host for the visit, who became the 5th living person to have seen White-knuckled Wolf-spider in Britain, swiftly followed by Iain who jogged over to see why I was shouting his name! Of course, Iain soon found one for himself.
On 28th July, still as part of the survey for Reddish Buff caterpillars, I was ferried back out to Brickfields by the NT, landing at 10:42, with the boat returning to pick us back up at 13:00 prompt. I did find White-knuckled Wolf-spiders again, but unbelievably it was not until the final suction sample, while I was racing to make the most of the last few minutes that I found any - white knuckles again!
Meanwhile, on 27th July Sara Gilmore and Shannon were suction sampling at Ningwood Common, as part of their incredible long-running monitoring work on Reddish Buff, and found another White-knuckled Wolf-spider, joining the still elite, but growing ranks of folk who've seen this species in Britain. I was able to join Sara, Tracy Dove and colleagues for a very enjoyable suction sampling session at Ningwood Common on 3rd August, in which we saw at least four White-knuckled Wolf-spiders.
I think the Ningwood Common HIWWT reserve is probably the best and most reliable site we have at which to see White-knuckled Wolf-spider, and would be the best place to carry out further studies of this species. Access to the reserve is by permission of HIWWT.
White-knuckled Wolf-spiders are quite easily recognised, as immatures and as adults, by the dark body and largely pale legs with contrastingly dark front femora. The whitish patella (the 'white knuckle') is the clinching ID character but usually requires getting them into a tube and using a hand lens. All ages have the contrasting whitish patella, but the effect is enhanced in adults by a covering of brilliant white hairs. My approach with the vast majority of spiders is only to attempt to identify adults, which means I normally 'tune out' any small lycosids and they are just not part of my search image. These encounters with White-knuckled Wolf-spiders have certainly changed that and I am very definitely now 'tuned in' to small lycosids.
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| Gleaming white 'knuckles'. Note that this individual has lost both its front legs! |
Why so many new records and new sites for White-knuckled Wolf-spider? I think there are two main theories: either White-knuckled Wolf-spiders have recently become commoner and more widespread in the north-east of the Isle of Wight (perhaps in response to our changing climate), or they have been comprehensively overlooked since 1985 and are not as rare or endangered as had been feared. The latter seems the more likely.
