Ryedale Natural History Society

Ryedale Spiders

by Jim Pewtress

Having been interested in spides for the last 10 years I decided to update the current spider list.

In the late 1990s and early 2000 the late Don Smith compiled lists of spiders as well as invertebrates, plants, fungi and his speciality lichens. These records were compiled from records sent to him from the various county recorders and experts and his own observations, especially Lichens. He examined 14,427 records of 6039 different species. He was an early user of computers and these records were all logged and are available here on the website. Most of his spider records came from Clifford Smith who generously passed over his entire card index of county spiders for Don to detail the local records.

Remarkable enthusiasm and energy of the late Clifford Smith resulted in him publishing an atlas of Yorkshire Spiders, all dots on the maps filled in by hand in 1982. In 1987 he became the first National Organiser of the Spider Recording Scheme where I have been able to check all spider records for VC62 to end of 2020 (368) and cross-referenced them with Don’s list. Some species have been omitted and others added. It would be useful if at some time in the future other lists could be updated.

[Ed: Jim’s new records can be viewed below, and downloaded as an Excel sheet (18Kb).]

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