Wildlife Australia - Spring 2017

Owen Seeman, Queensland Museum

S

ome years ago, the authors of this
beautiful new book developed
the website http://www.arachne.org.au.
It didn’t take long for their resource
to usurp every book I’d used before
to identify spiders: the older ground-
breaking works by Raymond Mascord,
Densey Clyne and Barbara York Main,
and even newer publications. Australia’s
small arachnology community soon heard
rumblings about a possible book, and
over the past year, the rumblings become
a roar. Now, A Field Guide to Spiders of
Australia is here, and it is a tremendous
achievement.
Invertebrates can be a hard sell in
the world of nature guides, even though
their numbers are legion, outnumbering
vertebrate species by an embarrassing
ratio. Sure, some invertebrates are
popular, such as butterflies, dragonflies,
and seashells, but spiders...? Spiders
are better known as venomous killers,
and many people’s fascination with them
begins with fear. Some find them outright
terrifying. Watching an orb-weaver spin

its web is one of the wonders of nature;

witnessing it snare its prey, entwine

it, and deliver the final bite is either

enthralling or disturbing, depending on

your relationship with spiders.

Robert Whyte and Greg Anderson are

well aware that a lot of people don’t share

their passion; hence, the tone of the book

is welcoming and conversational. Before

long, you’ve been introduced to a sizeable

portion of Australia’s approximate 4000

species, described as if these were the

authors’ beloved children. Once seduced

by the charm of spiders, you’ll find

yourself entranced by their ways and

amused by the authors’ entertaining

style. My favourite example is how a

gradungulid spider catches its prey. You’ll

probably never see one of these obscure

spiders, which hook their prey on enlarged

claws before transferring it to a ready-

made web, but the authors capture the

moment perfectly, describing it as ‘like a

child being flung onto a trampoline’!

This is not a guide with diagnostic

keys. Rather, their approach to

identification tries to capture that

used by arachnologists in the field. We

are regularly informed of the valuable

information provided by eye patterns,

and sometimes claw tufts (which allow

spiders to run up smooth surfaces) and

other features. But all that is a sideshow

to the real highlight of this guide: a

rogue’s gallery of 1300 unfailingly superb

photographs, reinforced with behavioural

observations, which provide the tools to

recognise the major groups of Araneae

within Australia. Many of these species

have never been photographed before.

The table of contents even has neat little

photographs for quick reference, along

with colour-coded tabs in the margins

• for it’s likely that most beasts a keen
  spider-hunter encounters will fall into one
  of the common families. In this respect,
  two families get the lion’s share of the
  book: the orb-weavers (65 pages) and
  jumping spiders (80 pages).
  The orb-weavers were once the darlings
  of the spider world, admired for their
  craftsmanship, beauty and strange habits.

REVIEW

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is the

cutest spider ever. The outstanding orb-

weaver (Araneus praesignis), is also known

as the ‘alien butt spider’ thanks to the

impressive ‘eyes’ on its backside.

Photo: Robert Whyte

OUTRIGHT

ARACHNOPHILIA

Photo: Robert Whyte

44 | Wildlife Australia | SPRING 2017