diff --git a/scrapy/trunk/docs/ref/settings.rst b/scrapy/trunk/docs/ref/settings.rst
index ab69abce2..a364f4201 100644
--- a/scrapy/trunk/docs/ref/settings.rst
+++ b/scrapy/trunk/docs/ref/settings.rst
@@ -246,12 +246,11 @@ console.
 DEFAULT_SPIDER
 --------------
 
-Default: None
+Default: ``None``
 
 The default spider class that will be instantiated for urls for which no
-specific spider was found. This default class must have a constructor
-which receives as only parameter (apart of self) the domain name of the
-given url.
+specific spider is found. This class must have a constructor which receives as
+only parameter the domain name of the given url.
 
 .. setting:: DEPTH_LIMIT
 
diff --git a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/conf/default_settings.py b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/conf/default_settings.py
index 1fcf33cde..540e39617 100644
--- a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/conf/default_settings.py
+++ b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/conf/default_settings.py
@@ -47,6 +47,8 @@ CONCURRENT_DOMAINS = 8    # number of domains to scrape in parallel
 
 DEFAULT_ITEM_CLASS = 'scrapy.item.ScrapedItem'
 
+DEFAULT_SPIDER = None
+
 DEPTH_LIMIT = 0
 DEPTH_STATS = True