Prostheclina pallida

3 Orange jumping spider at Acton, ACT

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Identification history

Prostheclina pallida	20 Sep 2019	MichaelMulvaney
Prostheclina pallida	18 Sep 2019	YumiCallaway
Unidentified	17 Sep 2019	TimL

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Significant sighting

MichaelMulvaney noted:

20 Sep 2019

1st record of this species for Canberra area, may have been introduced to Botanic Gardens in fern material originating from the coast.

User's notes

Thanks to Marcus Leach for the initial sighting on a handrail in ANBG's Rainforest Gully.

4 comments

YumiCallaway wrote:

18 Sep 2019

These are some references:
https://ednieuw.home.xs4all.nl/australian/salticidae/Salticidae.html
http://www.arachne.org.au/01_cms/details.asp?ID=2145
This individual's appearance and shape match those of the images in the link of the male Prostheclina bulburin with vibrant orange hairs around the eyes and a clear-creamy colour on the rest of the body with minimal patterns.
In the second link, part of the description is that they are found "on foliage in tropical and temperate rainforests or wet eucalypt forest, frequently on ferns". Considering you found it in the Rainforest Gully, it adds to the likelihood that this is an accurate ID. It may be a different species from Prostheclina because of this individual's lack of black hairs which seem to be another indicator for the species, but I feel that this is the closest match (and there aren't any sections for Prostheclina on CNM yet).
Nice photos by the way!

MichaelMulvaney wrote:

20 Sep 2019

Also see
https://media.australianmuseum.net.au/media/Uploads/Journals/18046/1471_complete.pdf

MichaelMulvaney wrote:

21 Sep 2019

Barry Richardson of CSIRO provided the following "The one with the furry red face and no brush on the front legs is P. pallida. The one with the brush on first legs is P. amplior. P. bulburin is a Queensland species. P. pallida should not be here, only amplior. P. pallida loves ferns, hiding on the undersurface of the frond at lower altitudes nearer the coast."

TimL wrote:

21 Sep 2019

Thanks to all involved in identifying this sighting. To me, this demonstrates the importance and value of Canberra Nature Map, and of contributing to it. Tim.

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