Amaurobiidae  Thorell, 1869 / Amaurobius  C. L. Koch, 1837   38 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
  No data
Distribution comment: Sardinia (P. Pantini, pers. comm.)
Global distribution (WSC 2024): 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   (no references) ||| Belgium   (Bosmans & Van Keer, 2017) ||| Bulgaria   (Blagoev et al., 2018) ||| Croatia   (Milosevic, 2002) ||| Czechia   (Růžička & Řezáč, 2022a) ||| Denmark   (no references) ||| Finland   (Koponen et al., 2016) ||| France   (no references) ||| France / Corsica   (no references) ||| Germany   (no references) ||| Hungary   (Samu & Szinetár, 1999) ||| Ireland   (Lavery, 2019) ||| Italy   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Italy / Sardinia   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Liechtenstein   (Arnold, 2001) ||| Luxembourg   (Kreuels et al., 2019) ||| Netherlands   (no references) ||| Northern Ireland   (Lavery, 2019) ||| Poland   (Rozwałka & Stanska, 2008) ||| Portugal   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Romania   (no references) ||| Serbia   (no references) ||| Slovakia   (no references) ||| Slovenia   (Kostanjšek & Kuntner, 2015) ||| Spain   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Sweden   (Kronestedt, 2001) ||| Switzerland   (no references) ||| Turkey (Asia)   (Danışman et al., 2024) ||| Turkey (Europe)   (Danışman et al., 2024) ||| Ukraine   (Hirna et al., 2016) ||| United Kingdom   (Lavery, 2019) |||
References

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

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 (2024) The checklist of the spiders of Turkey. Version 2024 [last updated 01 January 2024], online at http://www.spidersofturkey.info 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

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

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

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, 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

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

Pantini P, Isaia M (2019) Araneae.it: the online catalog of Italian spiders, with addenda on other arachnid orders occurring in Italy (Arachnida: Araneae, Opiliones, Palpigradi, Pseudoscorpionida, Scorpiones, Solifugae). Fragmenta Entomologica 51: 127-152 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

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 (2024) World Spider Catalog. Version 25.0. Natural History Museum Bern, online at http://wsc.nmbe.ch (22.01.2024) doi: 10.24436/2 pdf

Updates
17-12-2022 Distribution update Detail
04-11-2020 Gallery image insert
19-06-2020 Image insert
27-08-2019 Distribution update Detail
16-06-2017 Image insert
26-11-2013 Datasheet update Detail
09-04-2013 Distribution update Detail