Why did the spider die?

Hmm… I was looking for the enlarged palps which I associate with male spiders and didn’t think I saw them.

As it turned out, last night he was ‘only mostly dead.’ He had lain still and curled up all day and looked dead; but when I tried to retrieve the body, he staggered around for a bit, and a few hours later had moved a few feet and was again lying still and curled up.