Species

BackHogna heeri Thorell, 1875

Hogna heeri Thorell, 1875

Heer Wolf Spider / Tarantula-de-Heer

  • Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Arthropoda
  • Class: Arachnida
  • Order: Araneae
  • Family: Lycosidae
LC Least Concern
IUCN Red List Status:

Countries of Occurrence:
Portugal - Madeira

Archipelago(s):
Madeira

Assessor/s:
Luis Crespo
Mario Boieiro
Paulo A.V. Borges
Pedro Cardoso
Cardoso, P., Crespo, L.C., Silva, I., Borges, P. & Boieiro, M.

Reviewer/s:
Henriques, S. & Russell, N.

Contributor/s:

Facilitators / Compilers/s:


Assessment Rationale:

The Heer Wolf Spider (Hogna heeri) is known from varied and contrasting habitats on Deserta Grande and Madeira Islands (Portugal). This species has a restricted geographic range with a maximum estimate of extent of occurrence (EOO) of ca 1,400 km² and area of occupancy (AOO) of ca 800 km². However, Hogna heeri is assessed as Least Concern (LC), since the species seems to be able to live on all kinds of habitat, even close to human settlements and the population is therefore assumed to be stable. A monitoring of population trends should be conducted to confirm species status.

Geographic Range:

Hogna heeri is known from varied and contrasting habitats, from open barren areas in Bugio (Desertas) to laurisilva forest in Madeira Island (Portugal). Multiple collection sites are recorded for the species, many of them recent and in a number of different habitats (Thorell 1875, Warburton 1892, Simon 1897, Kulczyński 1899, Schenkel 1938, Denis 1962, Denis 1963, Wunderlich 1992, Crespo et al. 2013). It was possible to perform species distribution modelling to predict its potential range with confidence limits (Cardoso et al. 2017).

Regions:
Portugal - Madeira
Extent of Occurrence (EOO):
876-1439,1087 (km2)
Area of Occupancy (AOO):
36-812,408 (km2)
Elevation Lower Limit:
0 (m)
Elevation Upper Limit:
1755 (m)
Biogeographic Realms:
Palearctic
Presence:
Extant
Origin:
Endemic Madeira
Seasonality:
Resident

Population:

No population size estimates exist, but the species seems to be able to live in all kinds of habitat, even close to human settlements and the population is therefore assumed to be stable.

Habitat and Ecology

The species seems to be able to live in all kinds of habitat, from barren areas to laurisilva forest. The Heer Wolf Spider is an active ground hunter feeding mainly on small/medium size arthropods.

Major Threat(s):

There are no known threats to the species.

Conservation Actions

No specific conservation measures are in place for this species, but part of the species range is inside the Madeira Natural Park and in the Desertas Nature Reserve. The disjunct distribution of the species is currently being researched and might lead to a change in the current estimated maps. Monitoring of population trends should be conducted to confirm species status.