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Spiders & other arachnids
- Spider diversity
- A Spider toolkit
- A spider's life
- Dangerous spiders
- Australia's spider fauna
- Bird-dropping spider, Celaenia excavata
- Black House Spider, Badumna insignis
- Carrai Cave Spider, Progradungula carraiensis
- Comb-footed Platform Spider, Achaearanea mundula
- Cupboard Spiders, Steatoda sp.
- Daddy-long-legs Spider, Pholcus phalangioides
- Flower Spiders, Diaea sp.
- Foliage Webbing Spider
- Fringed Jumping Spider, Portia fimbriata
- Ground spiders
- Huntsman Spiders
- Badge Huntsman Spiders, Neosparassus sp.
- Jumping spiders
- Lynx Spider
- Magnificent Spider
- Sydney Funnel-web Spider, Atrax robustus
- Net-casting Spiders
- Rufous Net-casting Spider
- Garden Orb Weaving Spiders
- Golden Orb Weaving Spiders, Nephila sp.
- Silver Orb Weaving Spiders
- Redback Spider, Latrodectus hasselti
- Red-headed Mouse Spider, Missulena occatoria
- Sac Spiders
- Slater-eating Spider
- Spotted Ground Spiders
- St Andrew's Cross Spider, Argiope keyserlingi
- Tasmanian Cave Spider
- Trapdoor Spiders
- Sydney Brown Trapdoor Spider, Misgolas villosus
- Triangular Spiders, Arkys sp.
- Tube spiders
- Two-spined Spider
- Whip Spider
- White-tailed Spider
- Wolf Spiders
- Garden Wolf Spider
- Spider facts
- Spiders in art and culture
- Spiders in the Australian Museum Collections
- Other Arachnids
-
Wildlife of Sydney
- Wildlife of Sydney
- Habitats of Sydney
- Crustaceans
- Lace corals and sea mats
- Jellyfish, anemones and corals
- Frogs
- Frogs: Class Amphibia
- Bleating Tree Frog
- Brown Toadlet
- Common Eastern Froglet
- Dainty Tree Frog
- Eastern Sedgefrog
- Eastern Pobblebonk Frog
- Giant Barred Frog
- Giant Burrowing Frog
- Green and Golden Bell Frog
- Green Tree Frog
- Haswell's Froglet
- Jervis Bay Tree Frog
- Leaf Green Tree Frog
- Lesueur's Frog
- Peron's Tree Frog
- Red-crowned Toadlet
- Red-eyed Tree Frog
- Rocket Frog
- Fletcher's Frog
- Striped Marsh Frog
- Spotted Marsh Frog
- Tusked Frog
- Tyler's Toadlet
- Verreaux's Tree Frog
- Insects
- Ant-raiding Ant
- Bull ants
- Funnel Ant
- Golden-spined Ant
- Green-head Ant
- Meat Ant
- Spider Ant
- Sugar Ant
- Common Blue-banded Bee
- Common Wasp-mimic Bee
- Cuckoo bees
- Feathery Leioproctus Bee
- Honey Bee
- Leafcutter Bee
- Masked bees
- Nomia bees
- Peacock Carpenter Bee
- Reed bees
- Stingless Bee
- White-banded bees
- Braconid wasps
- Cuckoo wasps
- Diapriid wasps
- European Wasp
- Fig wasps
- Flower wasps
- Hatchet wasps
- Ichneumonid wasps
- Mud-dauber Wasp
- Paper wasps
- Potter wasps
- Sand wasps
- Spider wasps
- Velvet ants
- Steel-blue sawflies
- Australian Carpet Beetle
- Beach rove beetles
- Bess Beetle
- Blue Mountains Firefly
- Bombardier Beetle
- Christmas Beetle
- Click beetles
- Darkling Beetle
- Feather-winged beetles
- Flat African Dung Beetle
- Jewel Beetle
- Lesser Grain Borer
- Long-nosed Lycid Beetle
- Orchid Beetle
- Paropsine Beetle
- Plague Soldier Beetle
- Powder Post Borer
- Pumpkin Beetle
- Punctate Flower Chafer Beetle
- Transverse Ladybird
- Three-punctured Diving Beetle
- Whirligig Beetle
- Bronze Orange Bug
- Cotton Harlequin Bug
- Crusader Bug
- Feather-legged Assassin Bug
- Floury Baker
- Giant Water Bug
- Greengrocer
- Green Vegetable Bug
- Termite Assassin Bug
- Australian Painted Lady
- Blue Triangle Butterfly
- Cabbage White Butterfly
- Caper White Butterfly
- Common Brown Butterfly
- Common Imperial Blue Butterfly
- Common Grass Blue
- Bronze Flat Butterfly
- Macleay's Swallowtail
- Meadow Argus Butterfly
- Orange Palm Dart
- Orchard Butterfly
- Wanderer Butterfly
- Yellow Admiral
- Emperor Gum Moth
- Giant Wood Moth
- Grapevine Moth
- Privet Hawk Moth
- Scribbly Gum Moth
- White-stemmed Gum Moth
- Fiery Skimmer
- Mountain Tigertail dragonfly
- Pygmy Shutwing
- South-eastern Petaltail
- Sydney Hawk Dragonfly
- Waterfall Redspot
- Balsam Beast
- Black Field Cricket
- Blackish Meadow Katydid
- Common Garden Katydid
- Common Macrotona Grasshopper
- Common Pyrgomorph
- Illawarra Raspy Cricket
- Mole Cricket
- Sydney Gum Leaf Katydid
- Flat Cockroach
- German Cockroach
- Native Cockroaches
- False Garden Mantid
- Purple-winged Mantid
- Australian Sheep Blowfly
- Biting midges
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- Vinegar Fly
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- Birds
- Birds: Aves
- Birds in Backyards: top 30 urban birds
- Australian Pelican
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- Black Kite
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- Common Koel
- Flame Robin
- Galah
- Golden Whistler
- Great Cormorant
- Great Egret
- House Sparrow
- Laughing Kookaburra
- Little Pied Cormorant
- Masked Lapwing
- Pallid Cuckoo
- Pied Oystercatcher
- Rainbow Lorikeet
- Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
- Tawny Frogmouth
- Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo
- Spiders
- What are spiders?
- Bird-dropping spider, Celaenia excavata
- Black House Spider, Badumna insignis
- Daddy-long-legs Spider, Pholcus phalangioides
- Flower Spiders, Diaea sp.
- Garden Orb Weaving Spiders
- Golden Orb Weaving Spiders, Nephila sp.
- Ground spiders
- Huntsman Spiders
- Jumping spiders
- Magnificent Spider
- Net-casting Spiders
- Redback Spider, Latrodectus hasselti
- Sac Spiders
- Silver Orb Weaving Spiders
- Spotted Ground Spiders
- Sydney Funnel-web Spider, Atrax robustus
- Trapdoor Spiders
- Wolf Spiders
- Centipedes and millipedes
- Sea squirts and cunjevoi
- Sea stars, sea urchins and other echinoderms
- Mammals
- Mammals: Mammalia
- Australian Fur Seal
- Black Rat
- Bottlenose Dolphin
- Bush Rat
- Common Bent-wing Bat
- Common Brushtail Possum
- Common Ringtail Possum
- Feathertail Glider
- Grey-headed Flying-fox
- House Mouse
- Humpback Whale
- Koala
- Long-nosed Bandicoot
- Short-beaked Echidna
- Southern Brown Bandicoot
- Southern Right Whale
- Spotted-tailed Quoll
- Sugar Glider
- Swamp Wallaby
- Water-rat
- Freshwater fish
- Sharks and rays
- Common Stingaree, Trygonoptera testacea Müller & Henle, 1841
- Eastern Shovelnose Ray, Aptychotrema rostrata (Shaw & Nodder, 1794)
- Greynurse Shark, Carcharias taurus Rafinesque, 1810
- Port Jackson Shark, Heterodontus portusjacksoni (Meyer, 1793)
- Spotted Wobbegong, Orectolobus maculatus (Bonnaterre, 1788)
- White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Marine fishes
- Australian Mado, Atypichthys strigatus (Günther, 1860)
- Bigbelly Seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis Lesson, 1827
- Blacktip Bullseye at South Solitary Island
- Eastern Blue Devil, Paraplesiops bleekeri
- Eastern Blue Groper, Achoerodus viridis (Steindachner, 1866)
- Eastern Frogfish, Batrachomoeus dubius (White, 1790)
- Eastern Wirrah, Acanthistius ocellatus (Günther, 1859)
- Fanbelly Leatherjacket, Monacanthus chinensis (Isbeck, 1765)
- Fortescue, Centropogon australis (White, 1790)
- John Dory, Zeus faber Linnaeus, 1758
- Luderick, Girella tricuspidata (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824)
- Mulloway, Argyrosomus japonicus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844)
- Old Wife, Enoplosus armatus (White, 1790)
- Peppered Sole, Aseraggodes sp
- Pineapplefish, Cleidopus gloriamaris De Vis, 1882
- Red Indianfish, Pataecus fronto Richardson, 1844
- Red Morwong, Cheilodactylus fuscus (Castelnau, 1879)
- Eastern Red Scorpionfish, Scorpaena jacksoniensis Steindachner 1866
- Sand Whiting, Sillago ciliata Cuvier, 1829
- Sergeant Baker, Hime purpurissatus Richardson, 1843
- Common Silverbiddy, Gerres subfasciatus (Cuvier, 1830)
- Snapper, Pagrus auratus
- Sydney Cardinalfish, Apogon limenus (Randall & Hoese, 1988)
- Trumpetfish, Aulostomus chinensis (Linnaeus, 1766)
- Weedy Seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus (Lacépède, 1804)
- White's Seahorse, Hippocampus whitei Bleeker, 1855
- Molluscs
- Overview of molluscs - Phylum Mollusca
- Non-marine Molluscs
- Blacklip Abalone
- Black Nerites
- Blue-lined Octopus
- Blue mussels
- Cart-rut Shell
- Common Pipi
- Common Sydney Octopus
- Elephant Snail
- Garden Snail
- Giant Cuttlefish
- Ischnochiton australis
- Leopard Slug
- Limpets
- Little Blue Periwinkle
- Red Triangle Slug
- Sea Hare
- Squid
- Sydney Cockle
- Sydney Mud Whelk
- Sydney Rock Whelk
- Turban Snail
- Violet Snail
- Zebra Snail
- Sponges
- About the Museum
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ANIMAL SPECIES:Ground spiders
Ground Spiders are a vast and diverse group of spiders found all over Australia from rainforests to deserts.
Identification
Ground spiders are rather drably coloured, ranging from charcoal grey to pinkish brown. Some, like Anzacia, have shiny, iridescent hairs. Typically they have large, cylindrical front spinnerets that are well separated from each other. The middle eyes in the rear row are usually angular rather than rounded in shape.
Distribution
Ground Spiders are found Australia-wide.
Habitat
Most Ground Spiders are vagrant hunters that are especially common in forest and woodland habitats, living in leaf litter and under bark. Some are highly specialised.
Behaviour and adaptations
Other behaviours and adaptations
The Slit Spider of inland red sand-dune habitats makes a burrow with a wide, horizontal slit opening on the down-slope of a dune. The lower edge of the slit projects out beyond the upper edge, so that insects running down slope across the slit are guided into the cavity where they are grabbed by the waiting spider. Other Ground Spiders such as Hemicloea, are remarkably flattened for life in narrow spaces under rocks and bark.
Classification
- Family:
- Gnaphosidae
- Superfamily:
- Gnaphosoidea
- Order:
- Araneae
- Class:
- Arachnida
- Phylum:
- Arthropoda
- Kingdom:
- Animalia
Last Updated: 23 April 2010
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