Hogna nonanulata, Pico do Areeiro (Madeira island)

Madeira archipelago: the “Galapagos” of wolf spiders

I always called this way, the “Galapagos of wolf spiders”, these nice islands in the Atlantic ocean. They’re far from land, old and quite different from each other.

And they’re packed with some very interesting species of spiders, each one endemic to one or sometimes two islands only. I already talked about the giant, critically endangered species called Hogna ingens but there are more, very interesting species. I’m still working on them and I still miss some of the species, so I decided to post this, instead of a whole story about them.
I’ll go there again in the future, hopefully very soon, to complete the scheme and also to work more on the ecology and behavior of each species.
Some species were described not so much time ago, for example Hogna nonanulata that only lives on the Pico do Areeiro high plains where Madeira’s heath grows (and also near Laurisilva forest) and it was previously placed into the Hogna maderiana species, that instead only lives on the steep cliffs of the Madeiran coast.

Call it a “wannabe gallery” about the wolf spiders living in the Madeira archipelago.
I hope you’ll enjoy this evolution playground like I did, even if it’s not cute finches we’re talking about!