Servaea vestita (Koch, 1879) Hairy, or Well-dressed Jumping Spider

A common small jumping spider in coastal australia including Tasmania, very variable in appearance but nearly always having an inverted Y shape on the upper surface of the abdomen about two thirds of the way towards the spinnerets. Males and females are about the same size, body length to about 6mm, often much smaller. Legs I and II are longer in the males. Unusual in spiders, the male is sometimes bigger than the female. The body and legs can be pinkish grey to salt-and-pepper dark brown. They have a hairy moustache and hairy palps. They sometimes can have a circle of orange brown within the margins of the upper surface of the abdomen and even a thick thatch of white hairs on the abdomen and the cephalothorax. These variations are in the diagnostic drawings. Legs can be thickly hairy. Said to live under bark they seem common on foliage, especially in Autumn. They are very active and inquisitive spiders, with good camouflage. The species name vestita means covered or clothed in hairs. Barry Richardson at CSIRO found that despite enormous intraspecific variation the Servaea species in Australian museums are restricted to those already named (pers. comm.). The genus was erected by Simon in 1988. S. vestita is the most widespread species. Spiders with a great deal of red matted scales (hairs) on the front half of the cephalothorax maybe Servaea villosa, another widespread variety.

Front on
Female adult from above
Female adult face on
Female adult, in context showing size
Female juvenile, wiping eye
Male subadult, from above
Male subadult, face on to camera
Male subadult, from above
Male sub-adult, pinkish, from above, side
Male sub-adult, pinkish, face on
Male sub-adult, pinkish, from above, facing
Female adult, brownish, from above
Female, strongly pink, facing
Female, strongly pink, from above
Female, white thatched caput, white fringed brown abdomen
Female, white thatched caput, white fringed brown abdomen
Female, Two spotted
Female, bald headed, from above
Female from above GJA5333
Female from above GJA5333
Male adult from above, or another species
Male 7610 from above
Male 7610 from above
Male 7610 from side
Male 7610 palp
Male 7610 palp
Male 7610 palp
Male 7610 teeth
Male 7610 teeth
References

Front on

This spider was generally brown, hairy and nondescript, body length about 3.3mm. It appears to be a female, the males having relatively larger heads. It was on a retreat in a Bay Tree. It may not have been the spider's own retreat though, she had a guilty look as though she was scavenging.