About...

...this website

For many years the University of Southern Queensland has as a free service identified spiders brought in by the general public. This website was subsequently developed to assist people in identifying spiders found in South-east Queensland although many of the species featured may also be found in other parts of Australia. In addition, the site may be of some value for determining the family links of species that are very similar to, but not exactly the same as, spiders that are included here. Many species that do occur in South-east Queensland are not included on this site either because they have yet to be described and assigned a scientific name or because no good photos of them were available at the time the site was being constructed.

...the author

Dr Ron Atkinson provided instruction in physiology, pharmacology, toxicology and pathophysiology to Biology and Nursing students at the University of Southern Queensland from 1968 until his retirement in 2006. His research interests during this period centred on the spiders of the Darling Downs and the toxicology of their venoms, and he published papers on funnel-web antivenoms, necrotising arachnidism, and the use of spider toxins as insecticides.

...the photographers

The majority of the images included in this website are photographs taken by Dr Ron Atkinson using either a Ricoh RDC 5300 or a Panasonic Lumix FZ50 digital camera. Any images not created by him have the name of the photographer shown on them. More recent additions to the site include many images taken by Nick Monaghan using a Konika-Minolta A200, an 8 megapixel digital camera. Nick lives on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland and photographs both spiders and insects. With the aid of good luck and a great deal of patience he finds many species few other people notice.

...the University of Southern Queensland

The University of Southern Queensland is located in Toowoomba in Queensland, Australia, but now also has campuses on the Fraser Coast and at Springfield near Brisbane. This rapidly growing regional university has achieved great success as a provider of a wide range of external courses but also has some high quality on-campus programs and a very active Biology Department researching a wide range of topics in the general fields of biomedical technology, agricultural practices and environmental management.

Email Ron Atkinson for more information. Last updated 26 May 2007.