The Argiope bruennichi, spotted in Cheshire for first time, part of worrying trend that could threaten native species She is an unlikely harbinger of the climate emergency: a venomous black and yellow spider who spins mysterious patterns in her webs and eats her mates for breakfast. Native to mainland Europe, north Africa and Asia, the Argiope bruennichi – commonly known as a wasp spider – is rarely seen in the north and west of Britain. But a fully grown female has been spotted in Cheshire for the first time by conservationists from Chester zoo, who stumbled across the large, brightly striped arachnid in a rewilded field. Continue reading...

So, who owns what then? You can see the map at and the original petition here – with the image screengrabbed for this post. The linked petition on Cambridge City Council’s website was d…

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is an invaluable online archive of historic texts on species living and lost supplied by the world’s leading museums and universities. Now its future is in doubt

Book containing early versions of the Merlin and Grail legends has remained in private hands for 700 years

Banksias, bottlebrushes and emu bushes will bloom in Kensington Gardens as part of a research project into how antipodean flora copes with the capital’s changing microclimate

Banksias, bottlebrushes and emu bushes will bloom in Kensington Gardens as part of a research project into how antipodean flora copes with the capital’s changing microclimate

Sarah Eberle hopes to inspire people to nurture where town and countryside meet and nature is need of protection

Female muntjac given nickname of ‘lucky’ Lucy after being freed from department store’s moving staircase

Exclusive: Taped conversations also cover playwright’s relationship with fame, self-doubt and communism

Actor best known for his charismatic portrayal of Xander Harris, the heroine’s insecure sidekick, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

University’s botanic garden will use study materials created by John Stevens Henslow, the naturalist’s mentor, 200 years ago

Five women on both sides of the Atlantic reveal what it’s like trying to find a partner in your 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s

The apex predator has taken up residence along the banks of the river Cam in big win for local conservation efforts

In 2014 the Malaysian Airlines jet vanished over the Indian Ocean. Now the team that located Shackleton’s Endurance is looking again with the latest undersea robots

Long-overlooked documents housed at London's Natural History Museum testify to the exchange of information between 18th-century European botanists and their Indigenous counterparts

Cameras capture lone creature collecting materials for its lodge in riverside nature reserve

Many users of the app were shocked, this week, by this addition to the Spotify Wrapped roundup – especially twentysomethings who were judged to be 100

Many users of the app were shocked, this week, by this addition to the Spotify Wrapped roundup – especially twentysomethings who were judged to be 100

William Willett dreamed up the idea of clocks going forward and back on an early morning ride in 1907

Iida Turpeinen’s novel has been a sensation in her native Finland. On the eve of its UK publication, she talks about her compulsion to tell of the sociable giant’s plight

Sarky hacker Roddy in the espionage drama was a dream role, but before that, the actor had years of hard graft. He talks odd jobs, busting stereotypes and holding his own opposite Gary Oldman

Written in her twenties and released next month, The Life of Violet is a tribute to a mentor and early proof of Woolf’s desire to revolutionise fiction

What is it like to be in a room full of artists who are observing and drawing your naked body? Sitters discuss the freedom and healing they have experienced

Most of these little-known but already endangered fish have never been seen alive in their natural habitat, but are under threat from bottom trawling and deep-sea mining

The zoologist and author, 97, reveals how he has never lost his curiosity about the natural world, the loss of his life partner and how he became a surre...

We want to hear from people in their 60s, 70s, 80s or even 90s who are actively dating other people over the age of 60

If you're stuck in a stuffy office, you might wish you were working outside … but some jobs are much worse than others in the heat

With talented counterfeiters at the top of their game, how on earth do you spot a fake? And does it really matter anyway?

It’s made me feel it’s OK to be an artist with a social purpose, though my wife hates the beard

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In the 1960s, Stephen Shames befriended and photographed activists and revolutionaries, including Martin Luther King and the Black Panthers. More than 50 years on, he hopes that an exhibition of unsee...

Across the country men and women have cared for the resting places of their enemy’s fallen, finding peace and hope