MAIISG

Assessment Rationale:

Lathys affinis is known on all islands across the Madeira archipelago (Portugal). This species is assessed as Least Concern (LC), because it is able to inhabit several habitat types, including habitats close to human settlements, there are no known threats to the species, there is no continuing decline in the population, and much of the species range is inside the Madeira Natural Park and in several protected areas across the archipelago. However, it has a restricted geographic range. A monitoring of population trends should be conducted to confirm species status.

Geographic Range:

Lathys affinis is known on all islands across the Madeira archipelago (Portugal) and on all habitat types, from laurisilva forest to open arid areas. Multiple collection sites are recorded for this species, mostly recent (Blackwall 1862, Kulczyński 1899, Schenkel 1938, Denis 1962, Wunderlich 1992, Crespo et al. 2013, Crespo et al. 2014b). Cardoso et al. (2017a) carried out distribution modelling for this species to predict its potential range with confidence limits, using the R package 'red - IUCN redlisting tools' (Cardoso 2017b, Cardoso 2017c).

 

Population:

Population size is not known for this species. Cardoso et al. (2017a) record the population as stable.

Habitat and Ecology

This species seems to be able to live on several habitat types, even close to human settlements. It is a small, cribellate web builder occurring on vegetation or ground level and feeding mainly on small insects.

Major Threat(s):

There are no known threats to this species.

Conservation Actions

Much of this spider's range is inside the Madeira Natural Park and in several protected areas across the archipelago.