In species which spin webs the male will pluck and vibrate the strands of the web to attract the female's attention. He may hang around the web for days before making his mood. Some species wait until the female is occupied with prey; others until she is about to moult. Some supply a prey item as a gift. In species with good eyesight such as the Lycosidae and Salticidae, the males signals his intentions with his legs and palps.

Spiders are the farmer and gardener's friend. The Lycosidae will eat 5 - 15 small insects each day, and in California Pardosa ramulosa is an important predator of leafhoppers.
The Salticidae also have a fondness for leafhoppers and will eat 4 - 8 per day.
In China farmers build little straw huts beside their paddy fields for the spiders to overwinter in. In the UK money spiders protect the fields of winter wheat from aphids, and are active earlier in the year than ladybirds - another great aphid predator.
In France Tegenaria sp. are realeased into wine cellars as the presence of their webs is though to create feeling of age.
In Belgium many brewers belive that spiders are instrumental in controlling the numbers of fruit flies (Drosophilidae).

Oonopidae family

On the left is Oonops domesticus, there are only two spiders in this family in the UK, this one which is generally found indoors, and Oonops pulcher which is generally found outside. Both look rather similar being small, between 1-2 mm long. The abdomen ranges from yellow, orange, red or pink, with a tan or brownish prosoma. They have just 6 eyes and no epigyne. Both sexes are similar.

Although they are found widely in the UK and Europe, they are rarely seen because of their small size, and also because they are active at night. They have a characteristic way of moving - they seem to slide slowly over the surface, and then move so speedily that you lose sight of them. They lay just 2 eggs at a time in a silken cell.

When malaria, also known as ague, was common in Britain one remedy for it was a tegenaria "gently bruised and wrapped up in a raisin or spread upon bread and butter"!

In France Tegenaria sp. are realeased into wine cellars as the presence of their webs is though to create feeling of age.

Agelenidae family. The spider on the left and right is a mature female Tegenaria sp., as her body was at least 2 cm I would guess that she is Tegenaria parietina. Tegenaria can have a leg-span of over 10 cm, though it is the males which have the really long legs. She had made her web inside a metal shed, and when I found her had grown too big to escape from the shed. She seemed quite happy living off a steady diet of insects though. Tegenaria are the big hairy spiders we commonly find wandering round out houses in autumn. Although we usually find males as the females tend to stay on their webs. The males look very similar to the females except they are a few mm smaller, have a thinner abdomen, longer legs and usually have swollen palps (see the photographs below) as they are in search of a mate. On the right you can just make out the sclerotised entrance to the female's epigyne, this is the opening into which the male must place one of his sperm-charged palps. After a successful mating the males will usually live beside the females for a while, but die before winter, this provides the female with a substantial meal to see her through cold weather. Tegenaria can live for several years especially if they are in a sheltered location such as a house or closed metal shed. The webs can be pretty untidy, and often have a tubular retreat. On the left the female is on her web, note the long palps, these are always in contact with the web to detect any vibration indicating the presence of a possible snack. The spiderlings normally disperse without eating their mother.