Cicurina wartoni Gertsch

Warton’s Cave Spider (Cicurina wartoni)  

Warton’s Cave Spider is a small, color- and eyeless spider that is known from only very few, female specimens, and whose sole natural habitat is a small cave, called Pickle Pit, in Travis County, Texas.  

This cave sits on private land, and the landowners have denied everyone, including researchers access to the cave, the cave entrance has furthermore been locked with a gate whose lock is now rusted and which can obviously not be opened anymore, hence the last record of the species was in the year 2001.  

A big threat to the cave spiders are introduced Red Fire Ants (Solenopsis invicta (Buren)), an aggressive and highly invasive species, with which the spiders have to compete for food.  

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No one knows if Warton’s Cave Spider still exists at all – however, if it does, its future very probably looks bleak.  

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edited: 31.10.2017