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Once, as a child, I found a spider in my parents' garden. I remember catching it in a jar because I thought it looked unusual, but I never figured out what kind of spider it was and unfortunately didn't get any pictures. I've been looking for it in books and on the Internet since, based on memory, with no luck.

This was twenty years ago now, and I realize my memory of it may not be good enough to identify it now, but here's trying.

What I remember best was its abdomen, which was a dark metallic blue and sort of rectangular in shape. Its body was probably about 1.5 cm long, without the legs, and maybe 1 cm wide or a little less (I was a child, things look bigger when you're small.) It was found in a garden in the suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark, sitting on a bed sheet drying in the sun. It left only a few strings of web, almost like a bridge, from the bottom of the jar to the lid where it had escaped during the night because the lid wasn't sealed. I never found it again or saw another spider like it.

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  • $\begingroup$ black colour with blue abdomen in a rectangle? Also on top of the abdomen or was it the underside that you saw this mark? $\endgroup$ Jun 17, 2014 at 12:49
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    $\begingroup$ @TheLastWord Rectangular, blue abdomen, yes. I'm sure the rest of it (head, legs) was probably black. $\endgroup$
    – user5661
    Jun 17, 2014 at 12:52
  • $\begingroup$ anyway you can go through these internet images and find any similarity with the one you saw. google.co.in/… $\endgroup$ Jun 18, 2014 at 10:31
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    $\begingroup$ @TheLastWord Mark? It had no mark. The abdomen was dark blue and sort of rectangular instead of round. Looking through images on Google hasn't turned up anything $\endgroup$
    – user5661
    Jun 18, 2014 at 14:27

2 Answers 2

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This may be what you are searching for:

enter image description here

It's actually a male purseweb spider (Atypus affinis), the color fades to black, eventually.

Source: http://www.spiderzrule.com/purseweb2.htm

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    $\begingroup$ This is definitely close. Colors, geography, and everything seem to fit. I remember the abdomen being bigger and less rounded, but maybe that's just my memory. $\endgroup$
    – user5661
    Jul 20, 2014 at 8:47
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Was it this? This is another purseweb spider species.

enter image description here

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