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

Clubiona sp. (genus) (Unidentified Stout Sac Spider)

Clubionidae (family) (Sac Spider)

Clynotis severus (Stern Jumping Spider)

Corinnidae (Family) (Ant-mimicking spider)

Cryptachaea gigantipes (White porch spider)

Cryptachaea veruculata (Diamondback comb-footed spider)

Cycloctenidae (family) (Scuttling Spiders)

Cycloctenus sp. (genus) (Scuttling Spider)

Cyclosa sp. (genus) (Trashline Orbweaver)

Cyclosa trilobata (Three-lobed spider)

Cymbacha ocellata (Crab spider)

Cymbacha sp (genus) (A crab spider)

Cyrtophora moluccensis (Tent spider)

Cytaea aspera (Grey Striped Bark Jumper)

Cytaea severa (Severe Cytaea)

Deinopidae (family) (Net-casting Spider)

Delena cancerides (Social huntsman spider)

Deliochus idoneus (A leaf curling spider)

Deliochus pulcher (Beautiful Deliochus spider)

Deliochus sp. (genus) (A leaf curling spider)

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