Australian Spiders

This is the smallest spider I can remember seeing. The picture may not look that impressive, however the spider was about the size of a small grain of dirt. It was barely even recognisable as...

They have six or eight eyes, apart from some cave-dwelling species....

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Whyte and Anderson say that "This family is one of the great unexpolred frontiers in Australian arachnology". They have 8 eyes in two rows and long slender legs. They make small sheet-webs with a raised...

The peacock spider is an amazing and beautiful spider. I would not like to be one though. Male peacock spiders perform an elaborate courtship dance to try and impress a female. If the male continues...

These are known as Pirate Spiders because they shake other spiders webs to imitate struggling prey, and then attack the spider when it comes to investigate....

Although living together inside the one leaf sounds unusually romantic for spiders, females may cannibalise cohabiting males, independently of whether the female has had food....

Some other jumping spiders are shown below the Australian Bronze Jumping Spider. Jumping spiders are among the most visually attractive of all spiders....

There's an urban legend about a "hippie" or "feral" guy who lives wild, almost never showers or changes his clothes, and has very long hair with dreadlocks. He starts feeling sick all the time, even...

They are much more black than the picture I took at the Australian Museum. Most of the dead spiders have faded in colour, but this one especially so....

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This well-known spider sits in its web in an "X" shaped cross. It's perhaps the first spider I remember seeing in the garden when I was quite young. According to tradition, Saint Andrew was...

There used to be a rumour that daddy long-legs spiders have the most toxic venom of all spiders, but their fangs are too weak to penetrate our skin. This has since been debunked on both...

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Eastern Mouse Spiders are smaller but look even more stockily built than funnel webs and trapdoor spiders. They look like the spider equivalent of the short guy who spends hours a day in the gym....

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Wolf spiders get their name from their hunting style of chasing and running down their prey, like a wolf or dog would. A closely related wolf spider in the genus Lycosa, Lycosa tarantula, is the...

A great many Isopeda species are found all over Australia. ...

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There are a lot of these where I live, there would be over 20 holes in my garden. Even with that many holes, I've only ever seen a spider three or four times over...

Only the female has the tiger-like colouring. There isn't a lot of info available on these spiders. I'll look for more......

The genus Nephila makes web which has very strong thick yellow-golden looking strands in it. It has even been woven into garments....

Atrax robustus is mainly active at night, they like damp and could become dehydrated in the daytime. They have eight eyes. ...

As their name implies, they are very good swimmers. They are one of Australia's largest spiders in terms of legspan. They are harmless to people....

The Eastern Tarantula is Australia's largest spider....