Pardosa amentata

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. They can often be seen in full daylight, taking advantage of its vision and scurrying around in the open or on low vegetation, hunting for prey and warming themselves in the sunshine on patches of bare soil.^[3] During mating, the male stops a few centimetres away from the female and raises itself high on its hind legs and stretches its palps out and waves them to attract the female, moving gradually closer to her. If the female rejects his advances she will lunge forward and the smaller male will retreat and return a few seconds later to start his display again. After hatching from the eggs, the baby spiderlings stay on their mother and are carried by the female on her back until their second moult at which point they are large enough to fend for themselves.^[2]

The spider occurs in a wide range of open habitats, especially in damp areas. It has been recorded from grasslands, marshes, riversides, fens, saltmarsh, hedge banks, moorland, blanket bog, waste ground and field margins but rarely in heathland. In winter, they can also be found in houses near windows, doors, house plants and in basements to avoid the cold weather. They can also be found in the leaf litter at woodland edges and clearing. In the UK, it is usually the most common species of the genus Pardosa found in gardens.^[4]