Arbanitis sp. (genus)

A spiny trapdoor spider at Rosedale, NSW

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Identification history

Unidentified

29 Nov 2018

jb2602

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User's notes

Some sort of Trapdoor spider Mygalomorphae Burrows in dirt of cliff face next to beach. Looks a bit like Migolas p398 Spiders of Australia

1 comment

PaulWhitington wrote:

1 Dec 2018

Hi John. Great sighting! The overall appearance of this spider, its eye arrangement (rectangular) and its habitat (legs projecting from opening of burrows on cliff face) do point to the family Idiopidae - Spiny Trapdoor Spiders. To help confirm that, it would be helpful to know whether or not the spinnerets project much beyond the end of the abdomen and whether the raised portion of the carapace is glossy or is covered in fine hairs. I cover these and other points that may help to identify it to genus level in a blog. https://southernforestlife.net/happenings/2018/6/20/getting-to-know-mygals
If you can see any of these features either in your images or in the actual spider, make a comment.
It does look like the image of Misgolas robertsi (now called Arbanitis) in Robert Whyte's book, but I'd need this additional information to identify it with any confidence.

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