Two new species of spider have been discovered on St Helena, a remote UK Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean.
Two new species of spider have been discovered on St Helena, a remote UK Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. The discovery of these species, a Goblin Spider with armour-like plating on its abdomen, and a Miniscule Spider with no eyes that is one of the smallest spiders ever seen, brings the total number of species that live only on this one small island to 507. But threats including historic deforestation and invasive non-native species mean their future is already under threat.
St Helena is home to a sixth of the entire total species in the UK and Overseas Territories. Many of these species are found in the island’s remaining 16ha of Cloud Forest, which also plays a key role in supplying water to the 4,000 people living there. The island’s native wildlife has long been threatened by deforestation and the introduction of invasive species such as New Zealand Flax which was brought over in the 1800s to make rope.
While there are eyeless spiders around the world, the Miniscule Spider is the first one identified on St Helena, and it is unusual for not being a cave-dweller like most eyeless spiders. Neither the Miniscule nor the Goblin spider have been seen in the wild for over 30 years, leading researchers to believe that they are highly threatened – if not already extinct.
These species were discovered by British arachnologist, Danniella ‘Danni’ Sherwood, who had already identified three new spider species on St Helena back in 2023 and a further two in 2024 as part of research funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office through the St Helena Cloud Forest Project. She has since been conducting forensic analysis of past records and museum specimens and was able to identify the Miniscule Spider based on one single specimen. Two of the six St Helena residents who worked for the St Helena National Trust and assisted in the fieldwork are recognised in the official full names of the spiders: the Christy Jo Goblin Spider, after Christy Jo Scipio-O’Dean, and the Martina Miniscule Spider, after Martina Peters.
Danni Sherwood, discoverer of these species and Senior Research Scientist at the IUCN SSC Atlantic Islands Invertebrate Specialist Group, said: “I’ve been working as an arachnologist all over the world for over 15 years, but Saint Helena holds a special place in my heart due to the sheer variety of endemic spider species, and especially the fact that so many of them are desperately threatened. I am glad that the research we’ve done over the last few years has led to so many exciting discoveries for the island, and that we’ve had the chance to name species after so many incredible colleagues on Saint Helena who I collaborated with on-island, and whose passion and dedication are an inspiration to all of us in the field of conservation.”
The RSPB’s St Helena Cloud Forest Project Manager, Shayla Ellick, said: “The discovery of new species can feel bitter-sweet. There’s the joy of finding more natural treasures, but there’s the parallel stinging reminder that we may be losing species before we even know they’re there. With this funding and the on-going training of people who live on Saint Helena, we’re working to slow our nature loss and protect these amazing creatures. We’d like to say a huge thank you to our funder, FCDO, and project partners, and to all the other Saints on the island who are working day in and day out to protect these small, vulnerable species.”
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