Micropholcomma Sp.

Other Names: Micro Gondwanan Spiders

Size: Male body 1.5 mm, Female body 0. 8mm

Family: Anapidae (Tiny Orb-weavers). Subfamily Micropholcommatinae (Micro Gondwanan Spiders). These spiders used to be in the family Micropholcommatidae, which was absorbed into the Anapidae family in 2016.

Distribution: A CSIRO map shows the Eastern half of Australia, plus some have been found in WA so they probably live over much of Australia.

References: Framenau, Baehr & Zborowski.

About the Micropholcomma

This is the smallest spider I can remember seeing. The picture may not look that impressive, however the spider was about the size of a small grain of dirt. It was barely even recognisable as a spider to the unassisted eye, it looked more like a dot than a spider.

As of 2016, there are 8 species in the genus Micropholcomma. The genus was first described in 1927 by Crosby & Bishop. They are very small spiders (hence their name contains "micro"). There isn't much information about them compared to the larger more familiar spiders. The Australian lungless spider (Micropholcomma longissimum). There is still debate about how these tiny spiders should be classified.

Note that dead spiders usually fade in colour, so nearly all the spiders will look blacker or darker in colour in real life than they do in the photos of dead spiders from the museum.

Photo taken at Australian Museum, Sydney.

See Also

Australian Mammals
Australian Birds
Australian Reptiles
Australian Frogs
Australian Fish
Australian Wild Plant Foods

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