Bend-bearing Blunt-brow Spider (Silometopus incurvatus)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > spider (Araneae) > Spider |
| Red List Status: | Vulnerable (Not Relevant) [VU(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Silometopus incurvatus |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (O.P.-Cambridge, 1873) |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Harvey et al., 2017 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | VU, criteria: B2ab(ii,iv): some decline from apparent loss of many sites in NE England but maintaining AAO in Scotland which now has the majority of the GB population. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Absent from many apparently suitable sites even within its restricted habitat |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | No |
| Justification: | This species would not benefit from untargeted management |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 2. Biological status assessment exists |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Combination or other (detail in comments) |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | A sand dune species, often on mobile fore-dunes among Marram but also recorded in Sea Buckthorn litter. Recovery in England may be limited by climate change as well as habitat specialism; more N English than Scottish sites appear to have been lost but needs further investigation. Vulnerable to recreational pressures and coastal erosion. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Targeted survey of all former sites and similar near-by habitat using standardised methodology to assess current status (and establish baseline for national monitoring programme)
Action targets: 2. Biological status assessment exists
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 10 sites
High priority sites: Include focus on Northumberland sand dunes from Cresswell to Lindisfarne, where it has not been recorded for decades
Comments: Survey to be appropriately timed: adult season largely in early spring
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Autecological research to establish microhabitat requirements and inform management
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: Hart Warren dunes SSSI, Co. Durham; South Gare & Coatham Sands SSSI
Comments: Focus on sites with most recent/reliable records
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Review protection options for any Northumberland coastal sites where the species is re-discovered.
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Site protection
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: Northumberland sand dunes from Cresswell to Lindisfarne
Comments: Ensure account is taken of the need for mobile cf fixed dunes in the review (may be informed by Action 2)
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.