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

Storena formosa (Ant Spider)

Storeninae (subfamily)

Storosa obscura (Dark Storosa)

Synalus angustus (Narrow crab spider)

Tamopsis eucalypti (A two-tailed spider)

Tamopsis fickerti (Two-tailed spider)

Tamopsis sp. (genus) (Two-tailed spider)

Tasmanicosa godeffroyi (Garden Wolf Spider)

FEMALE WITH YOUNG

Tasmanicosa sp. (genus) (Tasmanicosa wolf spider)

Tetragnatha demissa (Crouching Long-jawed Spider)

Tetragnatha nitens (Brown Long-jawed Spider)

Tetragnatha sp. (genus) (Long-jawed spider)

Tetragnathidae (family) (Long-jawed orb weavers)

Tetralycosa sp. (genus) (Small Beach Wolf Spider)

Tharpyna (genus) (A crab spider)

Tharpyna campestrata (Country Crab Spider)

Tharpyna diademata (Diamond Tharpyna)

Tharrhalea pulleinei (Pulleine's Crab Spider)

Male

Male

Male

Thasyraea lepida (Prowling spider)

Thasyraea ornata (A prowling spider)

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