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.

The species, which mimics a wasp to deter predators, is thought to be the latest “climate refugee” extending its range northwards as the planet heats.