Spiders


Tips for submitting spider sightings: 

Photos from various angles are sometimes necessary for specific ID.

  • front (eye arrangement, pedipalp colour)
  • dorsal (above - general colouration, carapace and abdomen patterns)
  • ventral (underneath - especially useful for some of the ground-dwelling families and orb-weaving families)
  • side (further details for general shape, abdomen patterns and eye configuration)
  • back (further details for abdomen pattern).

Comments or photos on the following also provides valuable information if/when such features are applicable and observed...

  • surroundings and location (eg. ground, leaf litter, hand rail, tree trunk)
  • web structure and silk use (eg. orb, messy & tangled, throwing silk)
  • breeding (eg. display, egg sac)
  • behaviour (eg. hunting, interaction, familiarity with people such as the threatening display of a huntsman or the friendly and curious jumping spiders that jump onto the camera lens)
  • notable, unique, exciting or strange observations (eg. spur-like protrusions from legs, camouflage, mimicry)

Please note that the size of the spider is measured by body length.

  • body size is from the top of the cephalothorax (head) to the tip of the abdomen without including the legs.

(Updated: October, 2022. Please feel free to message a spider moderator if you have any queries or suggestions for improvement)

Resources

  • Field guide: A Field Guide to Spiders of Australia authored by Robert Whyte & Greg Anderson

Announcements

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Discussion

9 min ago
Thanks Nate

Trichonephila edulis
NateKingsford wrote:
17 min ago
@MichaelMulvaney the lower frizzy looking web would be an egg sac, Nephilidae spp. typically construct fuzzy balls in which their eggs are encased. The extra webbing makes it look less like an egg sac tho

Trichonephila edulis
21 min ago
Doesn't look like an egg case, more like a small larder of past catches heavily wrapped.

Trichonephila edulis
29 min ago
Yes a golden child amongst Daddy long legs

Pholcus phalangioides
Harrisi wrote:
Yesterday
well done Anna !

Maratus calcitrans
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