Australia is famous for its diverse, and huge, range of spiders. (Diverse range of huge spiders.)
We regularly see big spiders and the odd scorpion on our evening walks around Brisbane and I am lucky to have walking buddies who patiently wait for me to attempt to get bitten whilst taking close-up photos.
The majority of the Australian spiders are not dangerous for humans and the largest ones – huntsman spiders – are generally placid. Some of these photos were taken with a fisheye lens positioned against the spider – who patiently waited for me to take the photo.
I have not been bitten, yet.
Enjoy!
The Green Veined Spider, Mount Cootha.This is the biggest spider I have ever seen. It calmly sat there while I took its mugshot.
Huntsman spider on leaf, Mount Cootha
Jumping spider on citrus leaf. There are a lot of these guys in the garden in Spring. They are attracted to the flash of the camera. They also jump... onto the flash, of the camera.
Behold the mighty mopsis mormon! This jumping spider is one of the best looking spiders around. It's male because it's got a mohawk (obviously.)
We found this merry fellow walking around in the undergrowth on Mount Cootha. I'm not entirely certain, but I believe it's a local funnelweb (Hadronyche Infensa). If you know your spiders and can confirm or deny, please let me know!
This is a scorpion walking through undergrowth on Mount Cootha. They are reasonably common and we see the same ones in their burrows each evening.
Should have swiped left. This romantic liaison hasn't ended well for one of these huntsman spiders.
You cannot pass! These two huntman spiders (Huntsmen?) were having a standoff on a tree branch
Huntsman spider on a branch on Mount Cootha. The fisheye lens is good for warping the spiders to make them look bigger, but you need to be close. The legs are out of focus and the minimum focus range on this photo was 15mm.
This Wolf Spider mother is dragging her children around on her back. It's a tremendous effort and exceptionally dangerous in a forest filled with predators.
Scorpion in its lair, Mount Cootha. It's quite difficult to get their photo when they are in the mouth of the lair as they tend to duck back inside very quickly.
The claws of a scorpion are awaiting!
Huntsman spider on tree trunk, Mount Cootha
