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

Servaea villosa (Shaggy-velvet Servaea)

Sidymella hirsuta (Hairy crab spider)

Sidymella rubrosignata (Crab spider)

Sidymella sp. (genus) (A crab spider)

Sidymella trapezia (Trapezoid Crab Spider)

Simaetha sp. (genus) (Unidentified Brown jumper)

Simaethula sp. (genus) (A jumping spider)

Socca pustulosa (Knobbled Orbweaver)

Sondra aurea (Golden Sondra)

Sondra sp. (genus) (A jumping spider)

Sparassidae (family) (A Huntsman Spider)

Steatoda sp. (genus) (False Redback)

Stephanopinae (sub-family) (A crab spider)

Stephanopis altifrons (Knobbly crab spider)

Stephanopis barbipes (Brush-legged crab spider)

Stephanopis longimana

Stephanopis sp. (genus) (Knobbly crab spider)

Stiphidiidae (family) (Platform or Sheetweb spider)

Stiphidion facetum (Hammock-web Spider)

Storena cyanea (Ant-hunter spider)

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