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Australians have a love-hate relationship with spiders. Some spiders, such as the dangerous Redback and the Sydney Funnelweb, inspire fear. Yet Peacock Spiders, whose male waves its legs and spreads a colourful fan in a courtship dance, have won rapturous appreciation worldwide.
A Field Guide to Spiders of Australia uses photographs of living animals to help people identify many of the spiders they may encounter. Featuring over 1300 colour photographs, it is the most comprehensive account of Australian spiders ever published. With more than two-thirds of Australian spiders yet to be scientifically described, this book sets the scene for future explorations of our extraordinary Australian fauna.
A Field Guide to Spiders of Australia will be enjoyed by naturalists and anyone with an interest in learning more about Australia's incredible arachnids.
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- From arachnophobia to arachnophilia
- How to use this book
- Determining species – everything helps, including genitals
- Australia’s rich arachnological history
- Parts of a spider: the need-to-know terms
- Shortcuts to identification
- Spider families from A to Z
- Araneomorphae
- Mygalomorphae
- Little-known Spider Families
- Glossary
- Photo credits
- Readings
- Index
- Spiders: family tree
- Index of family common names
Robert Whyte is an honorary researcher in arachnology at the Queensland Museum, having developed an interest in spiders with the encouragement of arachnologist Robert Raven. He has participated in five Bush Blitz biodiscovery expeditions in remote parts of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland. He is an accomplished editor, author and journalist, with skills in photography and publication design.
Greg Anderson is a biomedical research scientist and heads the Chronic Disorders Program at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane. He has been interested in spiders since his early life in Newcastle and has travelled extensively around Australia and other parts of the world studying and photographing spiders. He has a particular interest in Comb-footed Spiders.
