It's easy to save cute animals, but people don't like spiders, flies, and beetles.
It's easy to save lovable endangered species, and most of us can even find something cute in those less glamorous species — but not so many people approve when it comes to saving spiders, beetles, and flies. Here are nine endangered and worthy of conservation.
Plant cunning spiders
The plant spider is one of the largest and rarest spiders in the UK. This spider is 0.8 inches long and makes its home in swamps. Instead of weaving nets, they hunt in the open water – using leaves and plant stems as temporary observation points, then running and attacking under the tension of the water. Planted spiders are found only in three regions of Central Europe and the United Kingdom and are endangered. Discovered in 1956, they are at risk due to the dwindling number of wetlands that provide them with habitat.
Spruce moss spider
Spruce Moss Spiders are tiny spiders that live only on alpine spruce trees in the Appalachian Mountains, hence their name. They range in size from 0.1 inches to 0.15 inches and range in color from light brown to yellow or reddish-brown. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, spruce moss spiders weave tubular webs between rocks and moss in the spruce forests of North Carolina and Tennessee, but they need the right conditions (neither too wet nor too dry). With forests already declining due to climate change, insect infestation, and previous logging and burning, the greatest threat to this endangered spider comes from habitat loss.
Kauai cave tarantula
Unlike other tarantulas, this half-inch long arachnid spider has no eyes. Like a swamp raft spider, it chases its prey and catches it, rather than weaving its web, it relies on endangered Khauai cave arthropods for food. Female spiders lay up to 30 eggs at a time and carry the baby spider on their backs until they are old enough to fend for themselves. The Kauai cave tarantula was discovered in 1971 and listed as endangered in 2000. As development and agriculture have taken over the area around the spider cave habitat, the Kauai cave tarantula population has declined.
Kati Skin spider
The Kati Skin spider is one of two species of spiders endemic to New Zealand and is a widow spider. The range of the cattipi spider is limited to coastal beach areas, where they are threatened by migration due to development and declining habitat quality.
Although biting is rare, it is more dangerous than females with larger males. Their bites can cause pain, sweating, difficulty breathing, and abdominal cramps.
Blackburn Sphinx moth
Native to Hawaii, the endangered Blackburn Sphinx moth is the state's largest native insect with a wingspan of up to 5 inches. The moth was thought to be extinct until a new population was discovered in 1984 and was found in Maui, Kahoolavi and Big Island. Threats to Blackburn Sphinx moths are reduced native plant growth of larvae, habitat loss, and newly introduced predators.
Salt Creek Tiger Beetle
The Salt Creek tiger beetle is an endangered species and one of the rarest insects in the United States. It is found only in the salt flats of eastern Nebraska, just north of Lincoln. Its number has decreased due to the loss of habitat in saltwater wetlands.
Only half an inch long, the Salt Creek tiger beetle spends most of its two-year life underground, a predator that catches prey with its tiger-like jaws.
Frégate Island Beetle
The one-inch-long Frégate Island giant walkworm is only found on Frégate Island in the Seychelles. Beetles, considered vulnerable species, have survived the influx and development of humans. Due to their limited habitat, they are particularly vulnerable to alien species and diseases.
These nocturnal flightless beetles live in trees and fallen wood and only come out to feed.
Red spiny ants
Although the redthorn ant lives across Europe, its small distribution in two small protected areas in the Isles of Scilly and Surrey makes it endangered in the UK.
Due to habitat loss due to development and agricultural production, ants need a dry, sunny habitat to nest and forage. Other threats include nest destruction, fires and carnivorous ant species.
Drisha loves flower flies
The Dressa, California, which is endangered since 1993, lives within 8 miles southwest of San Bernardino, California, and northwest of Riverside County. It is the first and only fly to receive protected status under the Endangered Species Act. The habitat of flies in the Delhi sands is threatened by new homes, businesses and roads.
This fly feeds on the nectar of California buckwheat, and adults are only active in summer.