''Zora silvestris'' is a prowling spider in the family

Miturgidae Miturgidae is a family (biology), family of Araneomorphae, araneomorph spiders that includes nearly 170 species in 29 genus, genera worldwide. First described by Eugène Simon in 1886, it has been substantially revised, and includes the previous f ...

which is found in Europe and

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

Description

The females are in length, the males . The

epigyne The epigyne or epigynum is the external genital structure of female spiders. As the epigyne varies greatly in form in different species, even in closely related ones, it often provides the most distinctive characteristic for recognizing species. ...

has a quite distinct groove. This species and the related ''

Zora spinimana ''Zora spinimana'' is a prowling spider of the family Miturgidae with a Palearctic distribution. It is the type species of the genus ''Zora (spider), Zora''. Description The females are 5-7.7 mm in length, the males 4.5–5 mm. The ep ...

'' are difficult to identify from each other, ''Z. silvestris'' is more grey coloured than the warm yellow colouration of ''Z. spinimana''. The darker legs of ''Z. silvestris'' are usually quite obvious. The two dark lateral bands on the carapace of ''Z. silvestris'' are broader than those on ''Z. spinimana'' and the

prosoma The cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms ''prosoma'' and ''opisthosoma'' are equivalent to ''cepha ...

on ''Z. silvestris'' is more contrastingly marked. ''Z. silvestris'' has two pairs of spines on metatarsi I and II, the other species of ''Zora'' in Britain have three.

Biology and Habitat

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

, ''Zora silvestris'' occurs on dry

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

, most commonly encountered in mature heather. A stronghold of the species is

Sherwood Forest Sherwood Forest is a royal forest in Nottinghamshire, England, famous because of its historic association with the legend of Robin Hood. The area has been wooded since the end of the Last Glacial Period (as attested by pollen sampling cores ...

where it is found with larger numbers of ''Zora spinimana'' in mixed heather and grassland where the encroaching scrub had been cleared. Adults of both sexes are found from May to July, although a female has been recorded in September.

Distribution

''Zora silvestris'' is found from western Europe eastwards into central Asia. In Europe, it is a widespread species from western and central regions and north into Sweden although encountered infrequently. In Great Britain it is rare, recorded from five sites in southern England, the most northerly being Sherwood Forest. The species rarity may be exaggerated due to the difficulty of distinguishing it from ''Zora spinimana''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2088799 Miturgidae Spiders of Europe Spiders of Asia Spiders described in 1897 Sherwood Forest