a male Austracantha! a tiny (half a centimeter long), wonderful little man who would not sit still for pictures, in classic wandering-male-spider fashion.
if you squint at him, he somewhat resembles the females, except much more toned-down in both his colour and the length of his abdominal spines, and sporting a pair of large round pedipalps.
I've spotted about 5 female A. minax in the garden so far, so here's hoping he'll find at least one of them in his travels.
and here's what the females look like:
its been about a year since I last saw an Austracantha, and I was beginning to think they wouldn't appear where we now live, surrounded by p
Jewel Spider, male (Austracantha minax).