Pardosa amentata

The species hunts its prey on the ground rather than weaving a web. It was described in chapter 5 of the book Svenska Spindlar by the Swedish arachnologist and entomologist Carl Alexander Clerck. Pardosa amentata is a wolf spider between 5 mm and 8 mm in length and has a brownish coloured body with darker brown markings or spots. The females are usually slightly larger than males and carry their eggs in a round sack made of silk beneath the abdomen attached by the silk threads produced from the spinnerets, but they lack the sooty-black hairs on the end of the pedipalps. The spider relies heavily on its eyesight to locate and stalk its prey, and its body is specially adapted for this purpose with its head squared off at the sides with two large and four smaller eyes facing forward, giving excellent frontal vision and two additional eyes situated on top of the head which extend the range of vision sideways and to the rear. The spider does not weave a web, but is a quick and agile hunter and chases and leaps on any prey that comes into sight, piercing it with its fangs. Their diet consists largely of flies and other small insects. They are often active very early in the spring and between the months March to July.