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

Heteropoda jugulans (Brown Huntsman Spider)

Heteropoda sp. (genus) (Huntsman spider)

Holconia immanis (Grey Huntsman)

Holconia insignis (Branded huntsman)

Holconia sp. (genus) (Unidentified Holconia huntsman)

Holconia westralia (Western Australian Banded Huntsman)

Holocnemus pluchei (Marbled Cellar Spider)

Holoplatys invenusta (Jumping spider)

Holoplatys lhotskyi (Queensland Ultraflat)

Holoplatys planissima (Common ultraflat jumping spider, Grooved jumping spider)

Holoplatys semiplanata (Flat jumper)

Holoplatys sp. (genus) (Unidentified Holoplatys jumping spider)

Hortophora biapicata (Orb-weaving Spider)

Hortophora sp. (genus) (Garden orb weaver)

Hortophora transmarina (Garden Orb Weaver)

Hypoblemum sp. (genus) (Unidentified Hypoblemum jumping spider)

Idiopidae (family) (Armoured or Spiny Trapdoor Spider)

Intruda signata (Ground spider)

Iridonyssus kohouti (Metallic Green Ant-mimic)

Isala cambridgei (Blunt-headed Crab Spider)

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