Spiders

Invertebrate of the year 2024: all hail Earth’s spineless heroes

Highly diverse and charismatic, these creatures deserve recognition as a sixth great extinction dawns

Patrick Barkham

02, Apr, 2024 @11:30 AM

Floating spiders and insect-eating plants: leaky dams revive Dorset’s bogs

Porous dams in Purbeck are being used to ‘rewet’ the mires, bringing a richer landscape for flora and fauna

Steven Morris

21, Feb, 2024 @5:00 AM

More than 100 wild animals trapped by border wall killed in Texas wildfire

US Fish and Wildlife Service memos reveal officials found scores of dead animals along a mile-long stretch last of the wall last August

Nina Lakhani

11, Jan, 2024 @11:00 AM

Death Valley tourist swerves to avoid tarantula in road and causes car crash

A man on a motorcycle was injured when the camper van braked suddenly to go around the roaming arachnid

Katharine Gammon

03, Nov, 2023 @10:00 AM

‘Stronger than steel, stretchier than rubber’: the quest to harness the power of spider silk

Spiders don’t make good domestic animals, and not many like walking into their webs in the garden, but scientists dream of a future where spider silk may revolutionise medicine

James O'Hanlon

30, Sep, 2023 @11:00 PM

Tim Dowling: my sons have left the house, to be replaced by spiders

It has not been that long since the last of our sons left the nest – but I am not handling it well

Tim Dowling

30, Sep, 2023 @5:00 AM

Country diary: Caught in the web of a spinning goddess | Country diary

Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire: To sit and watch a garden spider at work is surprisingly moving

Josie George

25, Sep, 2023 @4:30 AM

How to be more productive? I am taking lessons from my eight-legged life coach | Emma Beddington

The spider in my office is constantly web-building, fly-wrapping, fly-eating and darting around. Her industry is highly motivating, writes Emma Beddington

Emma Beddington

18, Sep, 2023 @6:00 AM

Country diary: A warm front door brings out the zebra spiders

Allendale, Northumberland: The wet summer has kept this stripy female sheltering in the silken retreat of the door jamb, but now she can finally emerge

Susie White

11, Sep, 2023 @4:30 AM

Wolf spider discovered on St Helena already endangered

Wildlife under threat from habitat loss on remote British Overseas Territory

Helena Horton Environment reporter

05, Sep, 2023 @10:15 AM

Country diary: Spiders are preparing for their autumn invasion | Claire Stares

Langstone, Hampshire: Giant house spiders are elite athletes with the ability to sprint half a metre in under a second

Claire Stares

25, Aug, 2023 @4:30 AM

The pet I’ll never forget: Rambo the tarantula scared people – but he was basically an eight-legged cat

We watched serial killer dramas together while I stroked his plump little rump and he never once bit me. If only he hadn’t come to such an unhappy end

Lowri Llewelyn

14, Aug, 2023 @10:00 AM

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