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

Acroaspis olorina (A twig spider)

Acroaspis sp. (genus) (Twig Spider)

Adoxotoma sp. (genus) (A jumping spider)

Allocosa palabunda (Palabunda wolf spider)

Ambicodamus crinitus (Red-black Spider)

Aname pallida (Wishbone spider)

Anzacia sp. (genus) (Ground spider)

Apricia jovialis (Jovial jumping spider)

Apricia sp. (genus) (Jumping spider)

Arachnura higginsi (Scorpion-tailed Spider)

Araneae (order) (Unidentified spider)

Araneidae (family) (Orb weaver)

Araneinae (subfamily) (Orb weaver)

Araneus albotriangulus (White-triangle orb weaver)

Araneus circulissparsus (species group) (Speckled Orb-weaver)

Araneus dimidiatus (Half Orb-weaver)

Araneus eburnus (Bush orb weaver)

Araneus ginninderranus (Dondale's Orb-weaver)

Araneus hamiltoni (Hamilton's Orb Weaver)

Araneus nigropunctatus (An orb weaver)

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