Oops!
An eight legged spider, as all spiders are. … The strangest thing … not that this young huntsman was out in the dead of winter, roaming a lifeless indoor wall.
*Click on the pictures for a proper look … and click again
And not in a hurry anywhere either, pausing frequently so I could get a few shots, but definitely going ‘somewhere’, but nowhere in particular. And then I see it.
Oops! How on earth did this happen, who or what would ever go anywhere, or nowhere, just to drop a leg? But it must have got caught up, and easier to let it go than fight for it.
And that’s what it did. But never mind, it will just grow a new one. If it can find enough to eat to survive long enough to grow it. … But no problem, just the fact of spider being.
© Mark Berkery … Click on those pictures for a closer look … and click again.
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Nature's Place 
Ouch!…
I’m not sure it felt any pain, no sign of any. The leg came off and the spider looked at it. Life went on …
I found a spider, who Lost two legs. It seemed somehow paralyzed, because on the next day it was still there, on the same spot on the wall. But obvoiusly alive.
There are spider hunters who paralyse them before cutting off their legs, check this – https://beingmark.com/2020/03/11/black-wasp-2/ – maybe your spider’s predator was interrupted before it could finish the job.
Yes I think so.
The aforementioned article about the black wasp is well known to me, Mark :-)
This is a fascinating sequence, and you are so fortunate to have been able to observe the self-amputation. It must have gone quite quickly, as there’s no indication of the leg’s entanglement in your first two photos. Its young age will certainly be an advantage in growing the new leg as it molts its exoskeleton. The ability to regenerate lost body parts (autonomy) is also shared by lizards, starfish, deer (antlers), and the amazing Mexocan axolotl, which can (rather miraculously) even regenerate its brain and heart.
It’s a weird and wonderful nature with every possibility manifest somewhere in some form.
Poor spider – but being able to regrow a leg is amazing – nature’s survival abilities. The last photo almost looks like the spider is checking the space where the lost leg no longer is, or perhaps adjusting to an altered balance…who would know is there is any pain for a spider. Great photos!