Favoritos de possumpete

Going by the pictures in Whyte & Andersons Field Guide to Spiders of Australia I used to ID these as Sondra aurea ( see pg 304 bottom left pic and description).

However looking at Zabka’s paper, I dont think this is aurea. Going by the description in Zabka’s paper the dorsal pattern, and overall shape do seem to match Sondra aurea, See pics 1, 3 and 7.

But there are some important differences.

This guy is male so I will concentrate on the male description.

The original description states:

“Clypeus dark-brown with single light hairs and brown bristles. Chelicerae brown, “

This guy has dense covering of yellow setae over both clypeus and top half of chelicerae. See pic 2 and 4.

“Chelicerae brown pro-margin with 3, retromargin with 7 teeth”

This guy has 6 teeth, see pic 5

“Pedipalps dark-brown, cymbium distally yellowish.”

No mention of the lighter coloured longish setae. See pic 2

“Palpal organ with pear-shaped bulbus, embolus dagger-like”

Not so sure about shape but certainly no sign of any “dagger-like embolus”
See pic 6

Some of the pics arent that great but after about 100 shots trying to catch him when he stopped moving for short periods, and especially trying to get the underside of the pedipalps when extended, they are probably good enough to highlight the features I talk about.

The paper:
Salticidae (Arachnida: Araneae) from the Oriental, Australian and Pacific Regions, XV. New Species of Astieae from Australia. ZABKA 2002