Twig Spider
Profile, cowering
Twig Spider
Dorsal
| Twig Spider Profile, cowering | | Twig Spider Dorsal | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Spiders, Scorpions, Mites & Ticks (Arachnida) | |||
| Order: | Spiders (Araneae) | ||||
| Family: | Orb-weaver Spider (Araneidae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Twig Spider (Acroaspis olorina) | ||||
| This Photo: | Front | ||||
Thank you Michael Gasteracantha for identifying this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere There are 4 Orb genera with these twig appendages 1. Dolophones: The twig is at the front of the abdomen, and a "proper" sized abdomen - so not that 2. Heurodes: there is confusion about synonymy with Acroaspis. Until Atlas changes we will accept there are still 2 genera. It's too small, doesn't have the turret head and doesn't have the "bulge" underneath. So not that 3. Poltys: Well the twig is scruffy, but the legs are similar. We still don't have the bulge underneath. The back is ribbed. It says their eyes are widely spread. Ok, clearly not that one 4. Finally here we see 2 groups of 3 eyes on each side of the head that nearly touch, then one eye on each side below that group. One thing not stated anywhere was it can lay it's abdomen down to look like a long spider, rather than an upright twig. The top of the abdomen is straight, but under is a lovely smooth curve to the "bulge" at the bottom. | |||||
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