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The dwarf spider  Mermessus trilobatus  (Araneae: Linyphiidae), native to North America, has expanded its range over large parts of Europe within less than fifty years. It is notable for occurring in a wide range of mostly agricultural habitats, while most other invasive spiders in Europe are associated with human buildings. As in other invasive invertebrates and plants, the tremendous colonisation success of  Mermessus trilobatus  might be related to anthropogenic habitat disturbance. Here we aim to test if the invasion success of  Mermessus trilobatus  in Europe is associated with high tolerance towards soil disturbance. We sampled spiders from eight grasslands experimentally disturbed with superficial soil tillage and eight undisturbed grasslands without tillage. Opposite to our expectation,  Mermessus trilobatus  densities decrease sharply with soil disturbance. This is in contrast to several native species such as  Oedothorax apicatus , which becomes more abundant in the fields after superficial soil tillage. Our study suggests that invasion success of  Mermessus trilobatus  is not connected to a ruderal strategy. The ecological and evolutionary processes behind colonisation success of  Mermessus trilobatus  need to be further investigated.   Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (10.1007/s10530-020-02348-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Unexpected sensitivity of the highly invasive spider Mermessus trilobatus to soil disturbance in grasslands