Research grade species #1205: Black laceweaver
Black laceweaver Amaurobius ferox
In the frenzy of the City Nature Challenge I set off into the part of my yard that we deliberately leave alone to collect leaf litter and bark and sprout trees and weeds at will. There I looked under every loose chunk of bark or old rotten board to add to the species count, and was delighted to find a big black spider!
Hacklemesh spiders (family Amaurobiidae) are about 100 species that live in dark places, weaving very sticky webs on the ground or on trees and such in order to catch insects as they blunder through. Amaurobius ferox ("the fierce one who lives in the dark," like a Lovecraft epithet) is a European species that does well around humans and the ways that humans alter the landscape. The first one found in North America was in Providence, less than an hour's drive from me; they are now found all the way west to Chicago, and all the way south to Durham, with at least one outlier getting a research grade assessment observed in Seattle.
The Wikipedia page for this species includes a paragraph on bites. This individual did not bite me, and I gave her more than enough opportunity and cause to do so. I'm not sure how a person gets bit by a spider, but not by handling nearly every one they find, as I do. I commented to the person who identified the spider that "I don't want this to be what she is but I agree that's what she is." Why? Because I specialize in urban species, and a disproportionate number of urban species in North America had a 5000 year head start at being urban species in Europe, Asia, and North Africa.
