White-spotted Swift Spiders Nyssus albopunctatus (Hogg, 1896)

(after Raven 2015): Males and females of N. albopunctatus differ from those of other species in the group by the more numerous (10) patches of white hair dorsally on the abdomen; males differ from those of N. pseudomaculatus and N. jonraveni  in the presence of a paracymbial spine and from those of N. paradoxus  in the absence of a large retrolateral tibial apophysis. Females differ from all other Nyssus species in the combination of the strong constriction on femur IV (as in I. auripilosus) and the large copulatory opening.

We here recognised more than one species in what Raven (2015) revised as N. albopunctatus, primarily based on the shape of the embolus of the male pedipalp. This differs consistently  in the species recognised here. Nyssus albopunctatus is here recognised as the species with closest similarities to Raven's (2015) illustrations with a more southern distribution in Western Australia. For more differential diagnoses, see all other species in the N. albopunctatus-group (FP-11734–11737). Females can currently not be differentiated and here illustrated based on associations with males.

Holotype, female, Central Australia, Illamurta (BMNH, 1924.3.1.844).

• New South Wales
• Queensland
• South Australia
• Tasmania
• Victoria
• Western Australia