Apparently very uncommon in Wiltshire, but it may be under-recorded because of its unobtrusive habit. Atypus, the only British member of the Mygalomorphae, is the "purse-web" spider, so-called because of the above-ground portion of its web which resembles an old-fashioned purse (see photo). It makes its silk lined tunnel on south facing slopes in friable soil, with the "purse" lying along the ground or loosely suspended in the vegetation.

I have only one record of an adult male, in November. Dick Coleman reports "adult males ... from August through to February" on Porton Down.