Sydney Brown Trapdoor Spider (scary photo warning)

I trust that you have not opened this blog posting if you find close-up photos of spiders a bit scary.

This one is, by all accounts, not a dangerous spider. I hope so, as it was brought to me tonight by a neighbour, and after the "photo shoot" I released it outside my house.

The best identification I can come up with (and I am NOT a "spider" person) is the Sydney Brown Trapdoor Spider (Misgolas rapax). It was a soft bodied spider, and very placid in attitude.

It is NOT a male. Males of these Spiders have very large "palps" which look like "boxing gloves" being carried in front of the spider. I have seen such male Trapdoors before, but not recently. This one had large fangs, but not the prominent palps. If you count the "legs and feet" from the rear left side in to towards the mouth parts, you will find there appear to be 5 pairs of legs. Not correct, apparently. Spiders have 4 pairs of legs, plus the "palps" which are feeding structures - they apparently have one less joint than legs. In addition, the fangs are also just visible in the centre of the front of the Spider's mouth area.
Also, male Trapdoor Spiders have a distinctive spur on the inside of the front legs, but this one does not. So, she is a female.

Front-on view.

Side view of the Sydney Brown Trapdoor Spider.
You can see the hard "carapace" is shiny, compared to the soft abdomen.

A close-up view of the "cephalothorax" (or "carapace").

Note the four small eyes (on the front top of the "head")
and large vertically hinged fangs, ("Paraxial Fangs") which are black and hairy.

This is one of the "primitive spiders". These spiders are typical "lie in wait" Spiders, not the "see, run and catch" type hunting Spiders (such as the Wolf Spider), which have large eyes, very prominently positioned on the head.

Close-up of the fangs.

You can see that these fangs will strike in a vertical manner, as distinct from "modern" spiders, which have "diaxial fangs" which operate in a pincer movement. The eyes are also visible (above the top of the fangs).

The pale fleshy area above the fangs and below the eyes, is a "hinge" allowing the fangs to be moved. After all the "carapace or cephalothorax" (what we would loosely call the "head") has a hard shell, so joints are necessarily soft, to allow for movement.

Rear view of the soft abdomen, showing very small "spinnerets".