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

Backobourkia brounii (Broun's orb weaver)

Backobourkia heroine (Heroic Orb-weaver)

Backobourkia sp. (genus) (An orb weaver)

Badumna insignis (Black House Spider)

Badumna longinqua (Grey House Spider)

Badumna sp. (genus) (Lattice-web spider)

Battalus adamparsoni

Bianor maculatus (Splotchy Bianor)

Bomis larvata (Miniature Crab Spider)

Bymainiella sp. (genus) (Barbara York Main's Funnelweb)

Carepalxis sp. (genus) (Two-humped spider)

Cataxia sp. (Spiny trapdoor)

Celaenia atkinsoni (Atkinson's bird-dropping spider)

Celaenia calotoides (Bird-dropping spider)

Celaenia distincta (A bird-dropping spider)

Celaenia excavata (Bird-dropping spider)

Celaenia sp. (genus) (False bird-poo spider)

Cetratus rubropunctatus (Long green crab spider)

Cheiracanthium gracile (Slender sac spider)

Cheiracanthium sp. (genus) (Unidentified Slender Sac Spider)

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