Austrarchaea griswoldi Rix & Harvey 2012

Austrarchaea griswoldi is a species of spider in the family Archaeidae. It is endemic to Australia.

Holotype male: Total length 3.08; leg I femur 2.99; F1/CL ratio 2.62. Cephalothorax dark reddish-brown; legs dark tan-brown with darker annulations; abdomen mottled dark grey-brown and beige, with darker brown dorsal scute and sclerites (Fig. 15B). Carapace tall (CH/CL ratio 2.17); 1.14 long, 2.47 high, 1.11 wide, ‘neck’ 0.58 wide; bearing two pairs of rudimentary horns; highest point of pars cephalica (HPC) near middle of ‘head’ (ratio of HPC to post-ocular length 0.56), carapace sloping in straight plane posterior to HPC; ‘head’ not strongly elevated dorsally (post-ocular ratio 0.27). Chelicerae with very short, barely differentiated comb of accessory setae on anterior face of paturon (Fig. 15C). Abdomen 1.47 long, 1.05 wide; with two pairs of dorsal hump-like tubercles (HT 1-4); dorsal scute fused anteriorly to epigastric sclerites, extending posteriorly to first pair of hump-like tubercles; HT 3-4 each covered by separate dorsal sclerites. Unexpanded pedipalp (Figs 15D-F) of Type E morphology (Fig. 6), very large in size (width of bulb >> 0.30), with retrolaterally directed, arched conductor; ventro-distal rim of tegulum distally extended to form rectangular opercular plate; embolus distally directed, curved, without spur, projecting only slightly beyond distal rim of conductor; tegular sclerite 3 (TS 3) very large, flattened, extending along entire retrolateral edge of conductor; TS 2-2a largely obscured by rectangular opercular plate, TS 2a projecting beyond distal rim of conductor to just past tip of embolus; TS 1 deeply embedded in bulb, obscured by opercular plate, not visible in ventral view. Allotype female: Total length 3.68; leg I femur 2.87; F1/CL ratio 2.29. Cephalothorax dark reddish-brown; legs tan-brown with darker annulations; abdomen mottled dark grey-brown and beige (Fig. 15A). Carapace tall (CH/CL ratio 2.20); 1.26 long, 2.77 high, 1.21 wide; ‘neck’ 0.70 wide; bearing two pairs of rudimentary horns; highest point of pars cephalica (HPC) near middle of ‘head’ (ratio of HPC to post-ocular length 0.55), carapace sloping in straight plane posterior to HPC; ‘head’ not strongly elevated dorsally (post-ocular ratio 0.28). Chelicerae without accessory setae on anterior face of paturon. Abdomen 1.92 long, 1.59 wide; with four pairs of dorsal hump-like tubercles (HT 1-4). Internal genitalia (Fig. 15G) with pair of pyriform spermathecae on either side of gonopore, clusters widely separated along midline of genital plate. Variation: Males (n = 3): total length 2.87–3.08; carapace length 1.10–1.14; carapace height 2.37–2.51; CH/CL ratio 2.15–2.22. Females (n = 3): total length 3.03–3.68; carapace length 1.24–1.26; carapace height 2.72–2.77; CH/CL ratio 2.16–2.23.

Austrarchaea griswoldi is known only from Eungella National Park, 70 km west of Mackay (Figs 24–25). Specimens have been collected by beating and sifting elevated leaf litter in tropical rainforest (Fig. 1E), especially under the dead fronds of Eungella Fan Palms (Livistona sp.).