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
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

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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

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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

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