Welcome to the web site dedicated to the fen raft spider

This site has been established to promote the understanding and conservation of one of Europe's largest, most beautiful but least common species of spider, Dolomedes plantarius. We hope that it will serve as an international forum for promoting the exchange, collation and dissemination of knowledge about the biology, status and practical conservation of this species. The site also includes increasing amounts of information about Europe's other raft spider species, Dolomedes fimbriatus.

The site is run as part of the current UK conservation and research programme for D. plantarius. This includes monitoring, conservation management and translocation programmes led by Natural England (formerly English Nature) in collaboration with the Suffolk and Sussex Wildlife Trusts. It also includes research into the autecology, molecular ecology and evolution of this species, carried out at the Universities of East Anglia and Nottingham. The BBC Wildlife Fund have provided invaluable funding for research and survey  in East Anglia in 2008 and 2010.

Apart from providing information on the biology, distribution, classification and identification of D.plantarius, this site presents an opportunity for others to contribute to efforts to conserve this species. 

This new version of the website is still under construction. Some pages are not available yet - please do visit again. If you find errors on the pages, please do contact us.

We are very grateful to all of the photographers who have allowed the use their images on this site. Please contact us to enquire about use of any of the images.