By Francesco Tomasinelli 

It’s quite surprising to know that one of the biggest European spiders is a wolf spiders living in high mountains, 2000 meters above sea level. The term “big” means about 25 mm body lenght in adult females; quite an impressive size for Europe, even considering big mediterranean wolf spiders like Lycosa tarentula and Lycosa narbonensis. Besides this Vesubia jugorum (Simon) - this is the name of the spider - is an endemic species to the Alpi Marittime and Mercantour alpine parks, respectively in Italy and France most beautiful mountains. How such spiders, whose family is usually linked to hot and low areas can survive here, where 20 Celsius grade are almost never surpassed, is quite amazing. Most studies in fact consider this species as glacial relic, survived from the ice age. Probably an ancient population of spiders, closely related to Vesubia, differentiated in Asia during Miocene-Pliocene and later radiated in Europe. This group, adapted to cold climate, managed to survive here in the eastern part of the Alps, after the slow warming of the earth following the ice age of the Pleistocene.