Workbook

Identifier: 130720b

Date of collection: 13th July, 2020; 23:59

Preliminary ID: Idiopidae; Arbanitis melancholicus (adult male)

Detailed notes page: yes

Notes: found on house wall, south side; missing both legs I; heavy rain during the day and intermittent at the the time of collection; imaged in situ, then live the following morning; frozen for 2 hours and then imaged in detail, including detail of palps (all on 14/7); placed into 100% ethanol by 4pm 14/7 and subsequently stored at 4ºC.

Identifier: 130720a

Date of collection: 13th July, 2020; 21:30

Preliminary ID: Atracidae; Hadronyche nimoola (adult male)

Detailed notes page: no

Notes: found wrapped in silk in the web of Cryptachaea gigantipes, high under the house eaves, south side; heavy rain during the day and intermittent at the the time of collection; web carefully removed under the dissecting scope; spider completely immobilised but appeared otherwise undamaged and quite ‘fresh’; imaged 13/7/20 while still live; placed into 100% ethanol by 11pm 13/7 and subsequently stored at 4ºC.

Identified as Atracidae (compact eye arrangement; massive chelicerae; relatively long legs; posterior spinnerets long.
Identified as Hadronyche (steeply rising caput; absence of tibia II apophysis; massive paturon; long row of central, cheliceral teeth).
Identified as H.nimoola (relatively small spider; caput rises very steeply, almost bulbous; tibia I & metatarsus I are not thickened; embolus rather short and strongly tapered, distally; large numbers of labial cuspules).

Note: other Atracidae found on this night, despite repeated searches around house surrounds.

Identifier: 110720a

Date of collection: 11th July, 2020; ~16:30

Preliminary ID: Atracidae; Atrax sutherlandi (female, perhaps sub-adult … although immature males may look similar??)

Detailed notes page: no

Notes: small female found under wood round in area to south of woodshed (ie the pile of cut wood from the branches that fell on the water tank during the fire). Collected and held overnight in container with moistened paper; by next morning she had constructed a loose silken retreat; imaged live (12/7/20) then released (under a log alongside the driveway, near the water tank).

Identifier: 010720a

Date of collection: 1st July, 2020; 12:30

Preliminary ID: Atracidae; Atrax sutherlandi (adult female)

Detailed notes page: no

Notes: large female discovered by builders as they were digging a trench alongside the water pumps on our original water tank; imaged live (same day), then placed in freezer at around 13:00, imaged again from 16:13; placed into 100% ethanol by 5pm 1/7 and subsequently stored at 4ºC. Removed from ethanol briefly on 12/7/20 for further imaging (of cheliceral groove).

Note: features match Atrax, but identification to species is not possible with females. However, based ID on known distributions of species in this genus.

Identifier: 220620 Bermagui (2 individuals)

Date of collection: 21st June, 2020; time unknown. Collected by Andrew (Lobba) of Jimmy Drakos’ building team, at an unspecified address in ‘central Bermagui’. The two large spiders were reportedly found under the same rock.

Preliminary ID: Atracidae; Atrax sutherlandi (2 adult females)

Detailed notes page: no

Notes: …. tbc

This is a workbook page … a part of our website where we record the observations and references used in making species identifications. The notes will not necessarily be complete. They are a record for our own use.