Arachnids

Dr Robert Raven
Dr Barbara Baehr
Ms Wendy Hebron
Dr Owen Seeman
Dr Claudia Arango

Section

Arachnids include spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, and other eight-legged creatures. Their ability to bite and their prevalence in homes leads to the Queensland Museum fielding more enquiries about spiders than any other topic. Our specialities are Redback Spiders and Trapdoor and Funnelweb Spiders.

Our current work

Interactive Key to the Spider Subfamilies of Australia; Conversion of World List of Spiders to relational database; Taxonomy of Mygalomorph spiders, Araneomorph spiders of the Superfamily Lycosoidea, and families Clubionidae, Cycloctenidae, Zoridae, Zodariidae, and Theridiidae.

Significance

Of the roughly 10,000 species of spiders known from Australia, only about 3000 species are described, and only the venoms of about 50 species are known. Hence, it is hardly surprising that the recent recognition that Mouse Spider venom may be more toxic than that of Funnel-webs has been so late in coming. Much more taxonomic research is needed and only limited funding by State and Federal Governments in Australia (cf. USA) is channelled towards taxonomy.