Rare spider spotted by in Telford - but don't worry it's only 5mm long

The picture was captured by Shropshire photographer Jason Garton, who as a spider enthusiast, was very excited when he spotted it on his garden wall.

The creature is a female sitticus pubescenes and experts say it is only the second of this type of spider to be recorded in the county.

Mr Garton, who lives in Talbot Close in Wrockwardine Wood, Telford, with his wife Melanie and two-year-old daughter Abbie, spotted the spider making a home for itself in his wall.

He said: "I photograph a lot of subjects but at this time of year I concentrate on macro photography with insects and spiders.

"I saw this spider but I didn't recognise what it was and I struggled to find an answer.

"In the end I contacted the national spider recording scheme at the British Arachnological Society, who confirmed the spider is a sitticus pubescenes adult female."

The society informed Mr Garton that it has have one previous record of the spider in Shropshire to date.

He said: "As you can imagine I am very happy and excited to have found and photographed such a finding and can confirm under the current records that only 560 of these spiders have been documented since 1820.

"This is a very healthy specimen and very active living on the back wall of my house and I closely monitor its movements on a daily basis."

The sitticus pubescenes is most commonly found in Leicestershire and Rutland.

There are probably thousands in Shropshire, but they are so small that they are hidden from view.

They are usually found around human habitations, sometimes under stones and sometimes in houses.

If you are lucky you may find one sitting on a fence post in the garden at this time of year.

Stuart Edmunds, a spokesman for the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, said: "This is definitely a Sitticus Pubescens, a type of jumping spider."

He added: "They pose no threat to human health at all and are one of many species that we tend to live alongside without even realising they are there."