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Comments & ID Thoughts
Amaurobius ferox, black lace weaver, male. This one was in the same habitat as the one in my other photo. They live in holes and crevices in the stone house foundation in damp areas. They make flat vertical and horizontal webs against the walls, floor and window sills with a twirled ending of the web inserted into their hiding place, it’s like a fishing line they come out when the line is tugged. They aren’t usually in the posture my photos show, they walk with their feet muchcloser together.
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Nov 18, 2018
- Photographed: Oct 16, 2018
- Spider: Amaurobius ferox (Black Lace-Weaver)
- Location: Nashua , New Hampshire, United States
- Spotted Indoors: Basement or Cellar
- Found in web?: Yes
- Attributes: Dorsal
Feb 24, 2025
Feb 22, 2025
Rochester, 
I think it’s Amaurobius ferox too
Great photo of your spider — very black and very blunt faced. Somebody needs to apply facial recognition technology to spiders. But then you wouldn’t have a hobby anymore !!!
Actually, it almost exists and I occasionally “cheat” in identification using Google Lens (Formerly the programming for Google Glass goggles). It has a vast photo database. It doesn’t search the internet unless you do that separately. It works very well for insects, plants, and mushrooms. It needs much more improvement and photos for spiders. It generally guesses: European garden spider, camel spider, and black widow – all for the same photo! Sometimes it can get close enough to give me a hint of what I didn’t notice about the spider. So we still have our hobby:)
Is she laying on ice crystals or is that her web ?
After I posted it I realized the substrate was weird looking. She’s on cheap concrete that’s full of silicon crystal (previous homeowner’s failed attempt to make stairs to the bulkhead door). There is the spider’s web in the photo. It’s the rope-like part that is draped over him. I pulled it by touching a stick to it and rotating the stick. That tugging excited the spider to leave the crevice in the background to see if he had prey in the web. Unfortunately for him it was me and my annoying camera flash. They’re photosensitive. I blocked his escape path… Read more »