Black Lace-Weaver wanderer

 In springtime male Black Lace weaver spiders roam in search of females. This one was dangerously walking on the pavement this morning, cold and wet from the night's rain. I took some quick shots and took him home for a white background session. The male palps look like they are holding white balls, these are the characteristically white and very visible palpar organs in this species.
 Black-lace weaver females (Amaurobius ferox), as their smaller relatives Amaurobius similis, have remarkable maternal behaviours, including guarding the spiderlings, feeding them using unfertilised eggs and then finally, encouraging them to eat their own bodies (matriphagy). For a fantastic video documenting this spider's maternal behaviour see this Arkive entry.
 More info in the British Arachnological Society page.

Black Lace Weaver: the female

Not even a week after finding my first male Black Lace Weaver, Amaurobius ferox, I came across the beautiful female by the back door mat of some relatives. The previous day I had seen a very fresh dead, limp male - which now I believe had just had a fatal encounter with the female - and possibly disturbed the female from feeding on its corpse. I checked the palps and left the corpse where I found it. The following day, on the same place where I had found the dead body of the male, I spotted the female, indoors. I took more photos of her, velvety black, fresh, alert. She moved across the room in broad daylight, and fearing for her life, I took her outside to a safer place.

A view of the top of the female, showing how dark it is and the faint markings of her abdomen

Crouching by a chair leg

A 'habitat' shot

Later, I spotted the body of the male, this time wrapped in cribellate silk, its skin empty like a discarded sweet wrapper. Were both wandering in search of mates, what was she doing out in the daylight, far from her hiding hole? 

Black Lace Weaver

If I had a spider top list, Amaurobius ferox, would be definitely in the top ten. So, meeting it for the first time, a male crossing my path on my way to work following its ghostly shadow cast by the morning sun, made my day. This is a large, powerful looking spider, much darker than its more common relative Amaurobius similis, which I often encounter inside the house. The large, complex structures, looking a bit like boxing gloves, are the palps, used by males to inseminate females. Female spiders have thin, simple, palps that look like small legs. Note the rounded structure visible on its left palp on the top photo, this is the palpal organ, which is characteristically white in this species.
  I took some photos and directed the spider to the wooded area at the side of the path, before it was squished (inadvertently or not), by students walking to their lectures. These spiders are typically nocturnal in their activities, but males are now wandering in search of mature females

The Black Lace Spider, according to W.S. Bristowe: 

"has an almost black abdomen bearing what vaguely reminds me of a skull and crossbones marking. This gives her a sinister appearance and she certainly is a formidable monster in its own territory. Indeed, the webs [of this] are singularly adhesive when fresh and the spider venom takes effect on an insect quite quickly"