Alice Springs Fauna •
Alice Springs SpidersAustralian Golden Orb Weaver Australian Huntsman Spiders (Sparassidae) Backobourkines Banded Garden Spider Beautiful Badge Huntsman (Neosparassus calligaster) Cytaea sp Desert Huntsman Spider Elegant Water Spider (Dolomedes facetus) Hackled Orb-weavers Hortophora sp Long-jawed Orb Weavers Long-tailed St. Andrew’s Cross Spider Lynx Spider (Oxyopidae) Miturgidae (Elassoctenus spp) Red-headed Mouse Spider Redback Spider (Latrodectus hasselti) Wall Spider (Oecobius sp)
This small spider in Alice Springs is thought to belong to the genus Elassoctenus, in the family Miturgidae.
The Miturgidae are described as “a family of araneomorph spiders” found in a worldwide distribution of some 29 genera and 170 species. The araneomorphs are the so-called modern spiders, having evolved later than the mygalomorphs, the earliest spiders.
The genus Elassoctenus, has at time of writing, one species Elassoctenus harpax, found in Western Australia and recorded on Atlas of Living Asutralia. Whether the pictured spider is the same species or another species or subspecies, is yet not known.
The Australian Elassoctenus species have not yet been exhaustively studied. In March 2017 only one Australian species, Elassoctenus harpax (as shown in the book by ( Framenau et al), from Western Australia was listed by the World Spider Catalog. However, several undescribed species have been found in Eastern States, including one in Victoria… Although these vary somewhat in colour they have the same rough body and leg surfaces as on E. harpax and even the distinctive white band midway along Leg III. This is strong evidence that the range of E. harpax includes Eastern Australia
Source: The Find-A-Spider Guide for the Spiders of Southern Queensland
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Subphylum: Chelicerata
- Class: Arachnida
- Order: Araneae
- Infraorder: Araneomorphae
- Family: Miturgidae
- Genus: Elassoctenus
Footnote & References
- Many thanks for ID to Micky O’Brien, member of Australian spider identification page, Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/australianspidereducation/
- Elassoctenus Simon, 1909, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/ae93018d-f032-4e87-bdbc-25d38abf02d8
- Miturgidae Simon, 1889, Racing Stripe Spiders, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/072ce68b-9a9b-413c-abdd-69b09250a70a
- Prowling Spiders (Family Miturgidae), iNaturalistAU, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/61867-Miturgidae
- Genus Elassoctenus, iNaturalistAU, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/421016-Elassoctenus
- Genus Elassoctenus, ausemade, iNaturalistAU, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/191659728
- Araneomorphae, Arachne.org.au, https://www.arachne.org.au/01_cms/details.asp?ID=906
- Elassoctenus harpax, The Find-A-Spider Guide for the Spiders of Southern Queensland, http://www.findaspider.org.au/find/spiders/553.htm (page was not currently active, but was archived in Wayback Machine).
- Araneomorphae, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araneomorphae
Alice Springs SpidersAustralian Golden Orb Weaver Australian Huntsman Spiders (Sparassidae) Backobourkines Banded Garden Spider Beautiful Badge Huntsman (Neosparassus calligaster) Cytaea sp Desert Huntsman Spider Elegant Water Spider (Dolomedes facetus) Hackled Orb-weavers Hortophora sp Long-jawed Orb Weavers Long-tailed St. Andrew’s Cross Spider Lynx Spider (Oxyopidae) Miturgidae (Elassoctenus spp) Red-headed Mouse Spider Redback Spider (Latrodectus hasselti) Wall Spider (Oecobius sp)
Alice Springs FaunaAlice Springs Native Bees Alice Springs Beetles Alice Springs Birds Alice Springs Gastropods (Gastropoda) Alice Springs Insects Alice Springs Marsupials Alice Springs Reptiles Alice Springs Spiders
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