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

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

Spiders

Huntsman spiders (Sparassidae)

Jumping or peacock spiders (Salticidae)

Wolf spiders (Lycosidae)

Other hunting spiders

Orb-weaving spiders (several families)

Trapdoor, Funnelweb or Mouse spiders (Mygalomorphae)

Other web-building spiders

Water spiders (Pisauridae)

Moderators

YumiCallaway

NateKingsford

EmmaCollins

EathanDouglas

become a moderator

NatureMapr is currently experiencing a prolonged outage. We apologise for the inconvenience and are working to get the problem resolved as promptly as possible.As of 3pm Saturday, the platform began r...

Sensitive data handling improvements

Near future enhancements

Platform update continued 30 JAN 2025

Major upgrade under way. Some known issues.

Discussion

NateKingsford wrote:

Yesterday

@EathanDouglas is this a Neosparassus or one of the sunburst ones? Also has much happened with the sunburst? Are they a new genus or apart of the Neosparassus genus?

Unidentified Huntsman spider (Sparassidae)

NateKingsford wrote:

Yesterday

Awesome find! Did you find her out in the open?

Idiosoma sp. (Genus)

NateKingsford wrote:

6 Feb 2025

Looks more like a juvenile Hemipteran. I'll wait for what others think

Unidentified Spider

MichaelMulvaney wrote:

3 Feb 2025

I have seen eight "free-loading" males at the same time all in the one females web, sponging off her web building and prey capture skills