Spiders

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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)

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Discussion

MichaelMulvaney wrote:

28 Sep 2025

@Harrisi one for you

Euophryinae sp. (Rockhopper) undescribed

Anna123 wrote:

28 Sep 2025

I have been looking at these as I found a similar jumping spider (sighting 4699956). It seems to me that these should be considered by an expert to see whether some (at least) are Saitis mutans first described by Otto and Hill in 2012. https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/899218d7-94eb-48c3-bf63-adc2f81f0cee#gallery

Euophryinae sp. (Rockhopper) undescribed

MichaelMulvaney wrote:

28 Sep 2025

Sorry for being so cryptic there are no other golden daddy long legs, just that this specimen has a golden glow

Pholcus phalangioides

MazzV wrote:

28 Sep 2025

Thanks @MichaelMulvaney; are there other 'Golden Daddy LLs'. or is there just no 'Gold(en)' in its common name? (I so want to call it that as an 'aide de memoir'!)

Pholcus phalangioides

NateKingsford wrote:

27 Sep 2025

@KylieWaldon this is a shed moult from a huntsman, it's how they grow and get bigger. Since invertebrates don't have any bones or internal skeletons, they have to moult their exoskeleton in order to grow

Delena cancerides