Test-tube babies

摘要

One of Britain's rarest spiders has been introduced to the Norfolk Broads after a captive breeding programme. A thousand hand-reared fen raft baby spiders or spiderlings were released on the RSPB's Mid-Yare reserve in an effort to generate new populations of this vulnerable species. The fen raft spider, (Dolomedes plantarius) is Britain's biggest spider and can grow to the size of a woman's palm with a body length of 23mm. It can literally walk on water to catch its prey but owing to deterioration and loss of wetland habitats, its population has suffered.