Arbanitis sp. (genus)

An armoured trapdoor spider at Giralang, ACT

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Identification history

Arbanitis sp. (genus)	9 Sep 2024	NKingsford
Arbanitis sp. (genus)	8 Sep 2024	NateKingsford
Stanwellia sp. (genus)	14 Sep 2016	MichaelBedingfield
Stanwellia sp. (genus)	14 Sep 2016	MichaelBedingfield
Unidentified	14 Sep 2016	Denise

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User's notes

Found in tree fern I have had for many years. I was looking for reasons for declining health in the plant and pulled the funnel/ tunnel web away from the trunk exposing this spider. A large spider. It appears to have an 'eye ' type marking on the forehead. It has been re-ID as Misgolas Kirsch ( Brown Trapdoors & Tube Spiders ) id by Dr Raven. Queensland Museum and Stuart Harris. thank you

6 comments

AaronClausen wrote:

15 Sep 2016

What a cracker. Bird eating spider?

AaronClausen wrote:

15 Sep 2016

I think that scares me much more than snakes do. I am more and more comfortable with snakes, but that spider looks absolutely terrifying.

MichaelBedingfield wrote:

15 Sep 2016

Thanks for these photos. I have downloaded the original photo, cropped it and added it back to aid in identification.

KimPullen wrote:

15 Sep 2016

This one may have come in with the tree fern, and may not be native to Canberra.

MichaelMulvaney wrote:

11 Apr 2017

I have changed the status of Stanwelia to non-local native on the basis of the following comment from Alison Rowell "By the way, I don’t think that the Stanwellia on a tree fern at Giralang should be listed as a local native species. Dave (Rowell) tells me that there is a Stanwellia in the ACT, but it doesn’t occur in town and it is soil-dweller. A different species comes in with the tree ferns that are sold for gardens. There is a thriving introduced population in tree ferns in the rainforest gully at the Botanic Gardens that presumably arrived that way, but the others Dave has seen here are one-offs on suburban tree ferns, a bit like the northern tree frogs that come in banana boxes."

NateKingsford wrote:

8 Sep 2024

This one is a fern dwelling Arbanitis that was imported with the ferns to the gardens. There is also local Stanwellia occurring on Issacs's Ridge, I've also found some out in the Lower Cotter Catchment Area. Although they're not often seen as they can be very illusive

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