I was trying to find out what's non-nom-noming its way through my kurrajong (Brachychiton) sapling yesterday but failed to locate anything even remotely herbivorous among the foliage. The culprit may be a visitor that spends its non-dining time somewhere else or it may have already fallen victim to this little jumping spider that had built its web retreat under one of the leaves.
It's easy for the non-specialist (i.e. most of us) to tell a jumping spider from other types. Those big round eyes (theirs, not ours) are a giveaway; not to mention the whole jumping thing. But identifying one of them down to species level — that's another matter. So far arachnologists have described more than 300 species of Salticidae from Australia and estimate another 1,000 to be waiting in the wings.
There are some great on line resources for anyone wanting to know more about local salticids. Here are two of the best:
http://salticidae.org/salticid/diagnost/keys-sal/aust-alphab.htm and
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/australian/salticidae/Salticidae.html
Good luck!
