Eresus sandaliatus is a species of spider

Spider

Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...

 found primarily in northern and central Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. Like other species of the genus Eresus

Eresus

Eresus is a genus of velvet spiders comprising several species, including Eresus cinnaberinus and Eresus sandaliatus, both of which are sometimes known as the "Ladybird spider".-Species:...

, it is commonly called Ladybird spider because of the coloration of the male.

Description

Male E. sandaliatus are generally 6-9mm (a little bit smaller than E. cinnaberinus) and characterized by a bright orange back featuring four large and two small ebony spots. White hairs are never present on the back, and legs always lack red hairs. In contrast, the females are 10-16mm and jet-black.

Habits

Males enter the adult stage in early September, but overwinter in their webs and search for females only in May or June of the next year. Otherwise, this species is very similar to E. cinnaberinus. After the 35-80 eggs hatch, the spiderlings receive a liquid from the mouth of the female. The female later seems to digest its own body, which leads to her death a few days later. The spiderlings then suck on the mother. The next spring they leave the web and build their own in close vicinity.

Distribution

E. sandaliatus is native to Europe, from England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and southern Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 to northern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. It has to date never been found in the same place as E. cinnaberinus.

Conservation

It is classified as endangered

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

 by the British Red Data Book and hence protected under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act.

In 1993 it was estimated that only about 50 individual ladybird spiders were left in Britain, mainly due to deprivation of an appropriate habitat. In 2000, however, over 600 separate ladybird spiders were counted, probably owing to the efforts of English Nature's Species Recovery Programme and affiliated operations.