Spiders

SpidersIndex of Spider Images Spiders in Australia Spiders Index Araneidae — Orb Weavers Arkys Australian Huntsman Spider Barking Spider Black House Spider Carepalxis sp Celaenia sp Crab Spiders Deinopidae — Net-casting Spiders Dolomedes sp Dolophones sp Flower Spiders Hackled Orbweavers (Uloboridae) Herennia sp Jewel Spider Jumping Spider Long Jawed Spider (Tetragnatha sp) Lynx Spider (Oxyopes) Mangrovia albida Maratus Missulena occatoria (Red-headed Mouse Spider) Miturgidae Nicodamidae (Red and Black Spider) Nyssus coloripes (Orange-legged Swift Spider) Ogre-faced Net-casting Spider Poltys sp (Twig Spider) Redback Spider Scorpion-tailed Spider (Arachnura higginsi) Thomisidae Tiger Spider (Trichonephila plumipes) White-spotted Swift Spider (Nyssus albopunctatus) Wolf Spider

Australian Spiders come in a huge variety of sizes, shapes and colouration. Spiders belong to the class Arachnida, more commonly known as arachnids. They share the class with other species including scorpions, harvestmen, ticks and mites.

If you know the name of the spider, you can check out our following list of spiders or see our Index of Spider Images or for a quick listing our Spiders Index.

Adult male Ant-mimicking Spider (Ligonipes sp), Ballandean QLD © Marc Newman — Adult male Ant-mimicking Spider (*Ligonipes sp*), Ballandean QLD © Marc Newman

You can also see our Index of Spider Images… which will take you through to the relevant page on the spider…

Spider are mistakenly called insects (class Insecta), however the main difference between the two class are that spiders have eight legs (four pairs of legs) whilst insects have six legs (three pairs of legs). Both spiders and insects belong to the largest group of animals on Earth, the arthropods.

Did you know that the Desert Scorpion also belong to the class Arachnida.

Another distinguishing feature of Arachnids are they have no antennae and no wings, with most being carnivorous, feeding on pre-digested bodies of insects or other small animals and birds. Some are parasites, whilst many are venomous, secreting poison from specialised glands.

As the largest order of arachnids, Spiders are found world-wide, except for Antarctica. As of July 2019, at least 48,200 spider species, and 120 families have been recorded by taxonomists.¹ There is much discussion among the scientific community on the classification of families, genus and species.

As well as having eight legs, spiders also have chelicerae with fangs that generally are able to inject venom and spinnerets that extrude silk.

Whilst some spider species have venom that is dangerous to humans, there is much scientific research into the application of spider venom as medicine and in the use of non-polluting pesticides. There is also research into the spiders silk production and the application in the human world.