Amaurobiidae  Thorell, 1869 / Amaurobius  C. L. Koch, 1837   40 species

Amaurobius ferox (Walckenaer, 1830)

Description

Tibial apophysis with shallow, roundish bulge dorsally. Epigyne with rounded lateral parts, median part ± semicircular. Prosoma red-brown, eye region almost black. Sternum yellowish. Chelicerae red-brown, to almost black. Legs red-brown, vaguely annulated. Opisthosoma black-grey, dorsally with irregular, yellowish spots.

Body length male: 8-10 mm
Body length female: 11-16 mm
Additional information

Almost only in caves, basements and humid mural chinks.

This species can bite humans when accidently squeezing them. The bite is painful as a wasp sting and disappeared completely after 12 hours. There may be a moderate local swelling and redness.

Troglophile species (Mammola et al., 2022)

Frequency: Frequent

Distribution
  Presence
  Not established
  No data
Distribution comment: Sardinia (P. Pantini, pers. comm.)
Global distribution (WSC 2026): Europe, Turkey. Introduced to Canada, USA, Mexico
Phenology
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
 male  female
Figures
Distribution List

"No references" does not mean that the species does not occur in this country, but that we have not yet inserted the reference for it. We are working on it.

Austria   (Thaler, 1994b) ||| Belgium   (Bosmans & Van Keer, 2017) ||| Bulgaria   (Blagoev et al., 2018) ||| Croatia   (Milosevic, 2002) ||| Czechia   (Růžička & Řezáč, 2022a) ||| Denmark   (Scharff & Gudik-Sørensen, 2006) ||| Finland   (Koponen et al., 2016; Zamani & Koponen, 2025) ||| France   (Le Peru, 2007) ||| France / Corsica   (Le Peru, 2007) ||| Germany   (Blick et al., 2016) ||| Hungary   (Samu & Szinetár, 1999) ||| Ireland   (Lavery, 2019) ||| Italy   (Isaia et al., 2025) ||| Italy / Sardinia   (Isaia et al., 2025) ||| Liechtenstein   (Arnold, 2001) ||| Luxembourg   (Kreuels et al., 2019) ||| Moldova   (Vasiliev & Mikhailov, 2023) ||| Netherlands   (van Helsdingen, 2025a) ||| Northern Ireland   (Lavery, 2019) ||| Poland   (Rozwałka & Stanska, 2008) ||| Portugal   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Romania   (Weiss & Petrișor, 1999) ||| Serbia   (Stanković, 2023) ||| Slovakia   (Gajdoš et al., 1999) ||| Slovenia   (Kostanjšek & Kuntner, 2015) ||| Spain   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Sweden   (Kronestedt, 2001) ||| Switzerland   (Maurer & Hänggi, 1990) ||| Turkey (Asia)   (Danışman et al., 2025a) ||| Turkey (Europe)   (Demircan Aksan & Topçu, 2022c) ||| Ukraine   (Hirna et al., 2016) ||| United Kingdom   (Lavery, 2019) |||
References

Almquist S (2007) Swedish Araneae, part 2 – families Dictynidae to Salticidae. Insect Systematics & Evolution, Supplement 63(2006): 285-601 pdf

Arnold K (2001) Beitrag zur Spinnenfauna (Arachnida, Araneae) des Fürstentums Liechtenstein. Berichte der Botanisch-Zoologischen Gesellschaft Liechtenstein-Sargans-Werdenberg 28: 211-244 pdf

Ballarin F, Pantini P (2017) A new species of Amaurobius C.L. Koch, 1837 (Araneae: Amaurobiidae) from Apennine Mountains (Italy) with the description of the male of A. pavesii Pesarini, 1991. Zootaxa 4276: 479-502 pdf

Blagoev G, Deltshev C, Lazarov S, Naumova M (2018) The spiders (Araneae) of Bulgaria. Version: August 2018. National Museum of Natural History, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Online at http://www.nmnhs.com/spiders-bulgaria/ (accessed on 10.9.2018) pdf

Blick T, Finch O-D, Harms K H, Kiechle J, Kielhorn K-H , Kreuels M, Malten A, Martin D, Muster C, Nährig D, Platen R, Rödel I, Scheidler M, Staudt A, Stumpf H, Tolke D (2016) Rote Liste und Gesamtartenliste der Spinnen (Arachnida: Araneae) Deutschlands. 3. Fassung, Stand April 2008, einzelne Änderungen und Nachträge bis August 2015. Naturschutz und Biologische Vielfalt 70/4: 383-510 pdf

Bosmans R, Van Keer K (2017) Een herziene soortenlijst van de Belgische spinnen (Araneae). Nieuwsbrief van de Belgische Arachnologische Vereniging 32: 39-69 pdf

Branco V V, Morano E, Cardoso P (2019) An update to the Iberian spider checklist (Araneae). Zootaxa 4614: 201-254 pdf

Brændegaard J (1966) Edderkopper: Eller Spindlere I Danmarks Fauna 72: 1-224 pdf

Danışman T, Kunt K B, Özkütük R S, Coşar İ (2025a) The checklist of the spiders of Turkey. Version 2025 [last updated 01 December 2025], online at http://www.spidersofturkey.info pdf

Demircan Aksan N, Topçu A (2022c) A preliminary checklist of the spider fauna of European Türkiye. Serket 19: 39-56 pdf

Dresco E (1977) Recherches sur les Amaurobius (Araneae, Amaurobiidae) et description de A. tessinensis sp. nov. du Tessin (Suisse). Revue Suisse de Zoologie 84: 873-882 pdf

Gajdoš P, Svatoň J, Sloboda J (1999) Katalóg pavúkov Slovenska. Catalogue of Slovakian spiders. Ústav kr. ekol. SAV, Bratislava, 337 pp.

Heimer S, Nentwig W (1991) Spinnen Mitteleuropas. Paul Parey Berlin pdf

Helsdingen P J van (2025a) Catalogus van de Nederlandse spinnen. Versie 2025.1. 249 pp. pdf

Hirna A, Gnelitsa V, Zhukovets E (2016) A checklist of the spiders (Araneae) of the Chornohora Mountain massif (Ukrainian Carpathians). Arachnologische Mitteilungen 51: 16-38 pdf

Isaia M, Tolve M, Pantini P (2025) Araneae.it: 2.0: the new updated version of the digital catalog of the Italian spiders and other arachnids (Arachnida: Araneae, Opiliones, Scorpiones, Pseudoscorpiones, Palpigradi, Solifugae). Fragmenta Entomologica 57: 197-204 pdf

Koponen S, Fritzén N R, Pajunen T (2016) Checklist of spiders in Finland (Araneae). 6th version, December 2016, online at http://biolcoll.utu.fi/arach/checklist_of_spiders_in_Finland.htm pdf

Kostanjšek R, Kuntner M (2015) Araneae Sloveniae: a national spider species checklist. ZooKeys 474: 1-91 pdf

Kovács G, Szinetár C (2020) Adatok a nagy eretnekpók (Amaurobius ferox [Walckenaer, 1830]) biológiájához (Araneae: Amaurobiidae) [Data on the biology of Amaurobius ferox (Walckenaer, 1830) (Araneae: Amaurobiidae)]. Biológia Savaria Természettudományi és Sporttudományi Közlemények 18: 75-92 pdf

Kreuels M, Staudt A, Christian S (2019) Die Spinnenfauna von Luxemburg – eine Zusammenstellung der Nachweise aus den Jahren 1906-2018 (Arachnida: Araneae). Bulletin de la Société des naturalistes luxembourgeois 121: 203-230 pdf

Kronestedt T (2001) Checklist of Spiders (Araneae) in Sweden [Preliminary version February 2001] pdf

Lavery A (2019) A revised checklist of the spiders of Great Britain and Ireland. Arachnology 18: 196-212 pdf

Le Peru B (2007) Catalogue et répartition des araignées de France. Revue Arachnologique 16: 1-468 pdf

Locket G H, Millidge A F (1951) British spiders. Vol. I. Ray Society, London, 310 pp. pdf

Loksa I (1969) Pokok I-Araneae I. Fauna Hungariae 97: 1-133 pdf

Mammola S, Pavlek M, Huber B A, Isaia M, Ballarin F, Tolve M, Čupić I, Hesselberg T, Lunghi E, Mouron S, Graco-Roza C, Cardoso P (2022) A trait database and updated checklist for European subterranean spiders. Scientific Data 9(236): 1-13 pdf

Maurer R, Hänggi A (1990) Katalog der schweizerischen Spinnen. Documenta Faunistica Helvetiae 12 pdf

Milosevic B (2002) Aranea – Popis vrsta – Checklist. Hrvatsko entomološko društvo – Inventar entomofaune Hrvatske [Aranea – List of species – Checklist. Croatian Entomological Society – Inventory of Croatian entomofauna]. pdf

Nentwig W, Gnädinger M, Fuchs J, Ceschi A (2013) A two year study of verified spider bites in Switzerland and a review of the European spider bite literature. Toxicon 73: 104-110 pdf

Pesarini C (1991) The Amaurobiidae of Northern Italy (Araneae). Atti della Società Italiana di Scienze Naturali e del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano 131: 261-276 pdf

Roberts M J (1995) Collins Field Guide: Spiders of Britain & Northern Europe. HarperCollins, London, 383 pp. pdf

Rozwałka R, Stanska M (2008) Check-list of spiders (Araneae) of Poland. 1. December 2008. online at http://www.arachnologia.edu.pl/en/species/8-spiders-of-poland.html pdf

Růžička V, Řezáč M (2022a) Seznam pavouků České republiky. List of spiders of the Czech Republic. Online at https://www.arachnology.cz/seznam-pavouku-cr-26.html and https://www.arachnology.cz/en/seznam-pavouku-cr-26.html pdf

Samu F, Szinetár C (1999) Bibliographic check list of the Hungarian spider fauna. Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 11: 161-184 pdf

Scharff N, Gudik-Sørensen O (2006) Katalog over Danmarks edderkopper (Araneae). Catalogue of the spiders of Denmark (Araneae). Entomologiske Meddelelser 74: 3-71 pdf

Sherwood D (2025) Annotated checklist of imported non-native spider (Araneae) taxa recorded in the United Kingdom 1800–2024. Arthropoda Selecta 34: 121-160 pdf

Stanković B (2023) Diversity of spider fauna in the area of Jagodina (Serbia). In: Seydoşoğlu, S. & Durna Aydin, Ö (eds.) International Cukurova Agriculture and Veterinary Congress 4. Adana, pp. 590-615 pdf

Thaler K (1994b) Beiträge zur Spinnenfauna von Nordtirol - 2. Orthognathe, cribellate und haplogyne Familien, Phocidae, Zodariidae, Mimetidae sowie Argiopiformia (ohne Linyphiidae s.l.) (Arachnida: Araneida). Mit Bemerkungen zur Spinnenfauna der Ostalpen. Veröffentlichungen des Museum Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck 73(1993): 69-119 pdf

Vasiliev A I, Mikhailov K G (2023) Annotated checklist of spiders (Araneae) of the Republic of Moldova. Invertebrate Zoology 20: 307-342 pdf

Weiss I, Petrișor A (1999) List of the spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) from Romania. Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” 41: 79-107 pdf

Wiehle H (1953) Spinnentiere oder Arachnoidea (Araneae), IX. Orthognatha-Cribellata-Haplogynae, Entelegynae (Pholcidae, Zodariidae, Oxyopidae, Mimetidae, Nesticidae). Die Tierwelt Deutschlands 42: 1-150 pdf

WSC (2026) World Spider Catalog. Version 27. Natural History Museum Bern, online at http://wsc.nmbe.ch (13.2.2026) doi: 10.24436/2 pdf

Zamani A, Koponen S (2025) First Nordic record of Pandava laminata (Araneae: Titanoecidae), with a synopsis of anthropochorous species of spiders in Finland. Arachnologische Mitteilungen 69: 5-9 pdf

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