The Distinguished Jumping Spider  -  (Attulus distinguendus, previously Sitticus distinguendus until 2017)

The Distinguished Jumping Spider is one of Britain's rarest spiders and is confined to just two small sites in the south-east of England, in the Thames Gateway. The first is Thurrock Marshes, in Essex, and the second is Swanscombe Marshes, in north Kent, a site directly opposite, on the other side of the River Thames. Both locations are brownfield sites and are known to be home to many rare species of both flora and fauna. The Distinguished Jumping Spider is a fairly small species of Jumping Spider, with adult male specimens reaching a maximum of 3-5mm, and females reaching just 4.5-5.5mm. In Britain The Distinguished jumping spider is a conservation priority, and has been placed on the UK list of Biodiversity Action Plan species. The Distinguished Jumping Spider has been recorded in Britain throughout the summer months from April to September, but most records in the UK are from July and September. As of yet I have only visited the Swanscombe Marshes site in search of this spider, and so far I've been unable to find a Distinguished Jumping Spider to photograph for this website.

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Thurrock Marshes

The Thurrock Marshes site is also known as the Oliver Road Lagoon. This 98 acre privately accessible site is owned by the Land Trust, and maintained largely by the Essex Wildlife Trust, with volunteer work also provided by Buglife, The Invertebrate Conservation Trust and Land of the Fanns. This brownfield site was once the location of Thurrock Power Station. The site now consists of a mixture of bare ground, flower-rich grassland, woodland and wetland. The habitat where the spiders have been found is mainly dry, sparsely vegetated ground, close to seasonally wet areas. The soil consists of a fine sand-like substrate, rich in Pulverised Fuel Ash (PFA), which has proven to be highly beneficial for wildlife. There have been over 1,300 different species of invertebrates, birds and reptiles recorded here, of which around 50 species are classified as rare in Britain.

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Swanscombe Marshes

At Swanscombe Marshes the Distinguished Jumping Spider has been found in just two small areas on the 372 acre site and nowhere else. Swanscombe Marshes is largely open to the public but there are some restricted areas. Thankfully the two spots where the Distinguished Jumping Spider has been recorded are publicly accessible 24hrs a day.

With the spiders being so small they're not easy to spot. These spiders are also very well camouflaged against the habitat where they reside. Attulus distinguendus are a ground dwelling Jumping Spider so the specimens that have previously been found at Swanscombe Marshes in 2003, 2004, 2007, 2012 and 2019 have been captured from the ground. All these specimens were found either by using pitfall traps or vacuum collectors, with the exception of one specimen, which was found by searching the ground by hand, and it turned up in the crack of a dried up puddle on bare ground.

In recent years the Swanscombe Marshes site, known as the Swanscombe Peninsula, was under enormous pressure from developers from 2008 until 2025. The site very nearly found itself as the home for a huge £3.5 billion Disney-style theme park for the Paramount company. The Government were in full support of the proposed new theme park and had given the developers about £300 million of investment from then-Conservative Party chancellor, George Osborne, in 2015 to kickstart the project. Thankfully due to huge public outcry, and the support from Buglife, various conservation groups, celebrities, and thousands of Save Swanscombe Peninsula volunteers, the site was eventually recognised for its importance to nature. On 10th November 2021 Buglife were able to confirm that Natural England had awarded the site with SSSI status. In February 2025 Kent On Line reported that the plans for 15,000 new homes had also been thwarted by the presence of the Distinguished Jumping Spider.

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The Distinguished Jumping Spider is found across much of Europe, and parts of East Asia. In some other European countries Attulus distinguendus is known as the Dune Jumping Spider. It sometimes shares its sand dune habitats with the V-Fronted Jumping Spider, Aelurillus V-insignitus. It's not just the habitat that these two species share though. Both of these Jumping Spiders share the unusual habit of taking shelter in a sand-covered sleeping-bag type of retreat. The spiders have been observed digging a shallow hole in the sand, in which they retreat, laying upon their backs, nestling themselves in a silken, sand-covered sac.