A spider expert in Manchester has confirmed that a new tiny spider species has been discovered in the UK. The species was found during an annual survey last year at the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus.

There’s no record of the species, named Anasaitis milesae (Tremough Jumper), anywhere else in the world. But it’s related to other species known in the Caribbean, so experts believe the spiders arrived in the UK on imported plants.

During the annual BioBlitz survey in Cornwall several of the tiny jumping spiders (4mm long), along with 500 other species, were collected. Spider experts believed the species was unlikely to be a Cornish native - so sent them to Dmitri Logunov, Europe’s leading jumping spider expert, at Manchester Museum.