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

Araneus talipedatus (Slender green orb-weaver)

Arasia mollicoma (Flat-white Jumping Spider)

Arasia sp. (Arasia jumping spider)

Arbanitis sp. (genus) (An armoured trapdoor spider)

Argiope (genus) (A St. Andrew's cross spider)

Argiope keyserlingi (St Andrew's Cross Spider)

Argiope protensa (Long-tailed Argiope)

Argiope trifasciata (Banded orb weaver)

female

female underside

male and female in web

Argoctenus sp. (genus) (Wandering ghost spider)

Argoctenus vittatus (Wandering Ghost Spider)

Argyrodes sp. (genus) (Dew-drop spider)

Ariadna sp. (genus) (Tube-dwelling spider)

Ariamnes sp. (genus) (A whip spider)

Arkys alticephala (High-headed Arkys)

Bird dropping camouflage

Arkys curtulus (Bird-dropping Arkys)

Dorsal

Side

Front

Arkys hickmani (Ambush hunter)

Arkys lancearius (Triangular Spider)

Arkys sp. (genus) (An Ambush, Bird-dropping or Triangular Spider)

Arkys walckenaeri (Triangle spider)

Dorsal

Colour variation

Front

Artoria sp. (genus) (Unidentified Artoria wolf spider)

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  »  17