Amaurobius similis is widespread and common in Britain. In the Provisional Atlas of British Spiders it is suggested (p. 290) that the species is probably present in every house and outhouse in the country. There are several records from Cornwall, but the lack of dots on the map indicates the extreme level of under-recoding from synanthropic sites in the County. The cribellate 'woolly' silk webs are especially obvious in crevices in brickwork and in the gaps around window frames. The spiders often emerge at night to tend to their webs adding strands of silk which they 'card' using a comb of stiff setae on their back legs (the calamistrum).

Back to the Checklist