Austrarchaea woodae Rix & Harvey 2012

Austrarchaea woodae is a species of spider in the family Archaeidae. It is commonly known as the Mount Bartle Frere Assassin Spider as the holotype male was found at Mount Bartle Frere in the Wooroonooran National Park. It was named to honour Hannah M. Wood and is endemic to Queensland, Australia.

Holotype male: Total length 3.54; leg I femur 3.74; F1/CL ratio 2.95. Cephalothorax dark reddish-brown; legs tan-brown with darker annulations; abdomen mottled grey-brown and beige, with darker brown dorsal scute and sclerites (Fig. 13A). Carapace very tall (CH/CL ratio 2.22); 1.27 long, 2.82 high, 1.18 wide, ‘neck’ 0.56 wide; bearing two pairs of rudimentary horns; highest point of pars cephalica (HPC) near posterior third of ‘head’ (ratio of HPC to post-ocular length 0.67), carapace steeply sloping and convex posterior to HPC; ‘head’ moderately elevated dorsally (post-ocular ratio 0.31). Chelicerae with dense, pick-like tuft of accessory setae on anterior face of paturon (Fig. 13B). Abdomen 1.69 long, 1.44 wide; almost spherical, with largely recumbent hump-like tubercles; dorsal scute fused anteriorly to epigastric sclerites. Unexpanded pedipalp (Figs 13C–E) of Type C morphology (Fig. 6), with retrolaterally directed, proximally constricted conductor and apple-shaped bulb profile in ventral view; embolus distally directed, slightly sinuous, without spur; tegular sclerite 3 (TS 3) large, flattened, with prominent, distally folded apex; TS 2-2a looped over retrolateral edge of conductor, TS 2 with strongly developed, spur-like apex extending to near distal rim of conductor, TS 2a looping around TS 3 proximally and projecting beyond distal rim of conductor to near tip of embolus; TS 1 indistinct, obscured by TS 2-3. Female: Unknown.

Austrarchaea woodae is known only from near the summit of Mount Bartle Frere, 12 km south-west of Babinda (Figs 22, 25). The only known specimen was collected in high altitude tropical rainforest.