Spiders of Australia
This site aim is to show the common spiders of Australia by means of color photos and informative text.
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These pages together contain over 2000 spider pictures with 520
species in 179 genera that were photographed in Queensland, New South
Wales,
Victoria, Northern-Territory and Western Australia.
Pictures of spiders from NW-Europe and several links to venomous spiders and much more information can be found on the spider site of European spiders.
This page is the main entry to more informative texts about spiders and their behaviour.
Spiders (class Arachnida) are eight-legged creatures belonging to a group (phylum) called Arthropoda that are different from insects (class Hexapoda) on several easy to see characteristics. They have no antennae, their eyes are like ours and not segmented, and they have four pairs of legs.
More general spider information can be found on these pages: Spider information.
Green jumping spider Mopsus mormon
Australian animals are made very dangerous by documentaries
featuring sharks, box yellyfishes, crocodiles, snakes and spiders in
which they kill
ferociously other creatures.
Sometimes they are caught by fearless hunters in four-wheel drives or +2000
hp boats. It is true, bites of crocodiles, sharks and black mambas are
to be avoided.
It is also suggested that bites of spiders will almost kill you instantly or
can cause the affected limb falling off by ulceration and necrotic lesions. Luckily
for us that is not true.
Two spiders should be avoided, the Sydney
Funnel-web (Atrax robustus)
that lives in a 100 km circle around Sydney and the Redback (Latrodectus
hasselti). Their bites can be very painful. Are those two to be worried about? Since 1956 nobody died from a Redback
bite and since 1980 nobody from a Sydney Funnel-web bite, because
of the development
of an antivenom and better medical treatment.
A
recent study by Isbister and Gray showed that the White-tail (Lampona
species) spider bite is most probably harmless.
A review of the toxicity of several Australian spiders can
be read here.
But if in doubt, leave the spider where it is and walk away. And, a bee sting
is often more painful than most spider bites.
And if
bitten? look here.
Common backyard spiders.
for an overview of all pictures on this site.
Easy if you want to identify your spider by photo.
