Spiders

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

Spiders

Huntsman spiders (Sparassidae)

Jumping or peacock spiders (Salticidae)

Wolf spiders (Lycosidae)

Other hunting spiders

Orb-weaving spiders (several families)

Trapdoor, Funnelweb or Mouse spiders (Mygalomorphae)

Other web-building spiders

Water spiders (Pisauridae)

Moderators

YumiCallaway

EmmaCollins

NateKingsford

EathanDouglas

Bron

AndrewO

BravoSiera117

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Discussion

CathB wrote:

38 min ago

@NateKingsford I’m not sure what happened here, but this was subsequently identified as M calcitrans with the sighting number 4205927.

Maratus sp. (genus)

NateKingsford wrote:

49 min ago

I'm inclined to go with Tasmanicosa for this one

Lycosidae (family)

EmmaCollins wrote:

2 hrs ago

No problem! As part of the clean-up week we're trying to reduce the unidentified numbers and hopefully get some of the older ones identified.

Araneidae (family)

EathanDouglas wrote:

3 hrs ago

There are some records on INaturalist around the ACT that are ID'd as Zorinae (a subfamily within Miturgidae) due to conflicting identifications with Argoctenus which are a similar genus, I don't know too much about them but only one species has been described from WA in 1909 so there's work to be done on the genus, these are likely undescribed.

Miturgidae (family)

EmmaCollins wrote:

8 hrs ago

Possibly another Elassoctenus sp.

Miturgidae (family)