Spider field guide

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

• A good introduction: http://www.ento.csiro.au/education/allies/araneae.html

• All about Australian spiders: http://www.arachne.org.au/01_cms/details.asp?ID=2409

Euryattus sp. (genus) (Unidentified Euryattus jumping spider)

Eutichuridae (family) (Slender sac spider)

Habronestes sp. (genus) (An ant-eating spider)

Hadronyche nimoola (A funnel-web spider)

Hadronyche sp. (genus) (A funnel web)

Hadronyche versuta (Funnel-web Spider)

Hedana sp. (genus) (Crab spider)

Helpis minitabunda (Threatening jumping spider)

Helpis sp. (genus) (Unidentified Bronze Jumping Spider)

Hemicloea sp. (genus) (Flat bark spider)

Holconia immanis (Grey Huntsman)

Hortophora sp. (genus) (Garden orb weaver)

Hortophora transmarina (Garden Orb Weaver)

Hypoblemum sp. (genus) (Unidentified Hypoblemum jumping spider)

Isopeda brachyseta

Isopeda or Isopedella sp. (genus) (Huntsman)

Isopeda sp. (genus) (Huntsman Spider)

Isopeda villosa (Brown Huntsman Spider)

Lampona cylindrata (White-tailed Spider)

Latrodectus hasselti (Redback Spider)

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