Austrarchaea westi Rix & Harvey 2012

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

Holotype male: Total length 3.13; leg I femur 3.23; F1/CL ratio 2.65. Cephalothorax reddish-brown; legs beige with darker annulations; abdomen mottled grey-brown and beige, with darker brown dorsal scute and sclerites (Fig. 12A). Carapace tall (CH/CL ratio 2.15); 1.22 long, 2.62 high, 1.13 wide, ‘neck’ 0.65 wide; bearing two pairs of rudimentary horns; highest point of pars cephalica (HPC) approaching posterior quarter of ‘head’ (ratio of HPC to post-ocular length 0.71), carapace gently sloping posterior to HPC; ‘head’ not strongly elevated dorsally (post-ocular ratio 0.27). Chelicerae with very short, barely differentiated accessory setae on anterior face of paturon (Fig. 12B). Abdomen 1.65 long, 1.10 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 12C-E) of Type B morphology (Fig. 6), very small in size (width of bulb << 0.30), with large, retrolaterally directed, arched conductor; embolus curved, distally enclosed within conductor, without spur; tegular sclerite 3 (TS 3) porrect, spur-like, with pointed, pro-distally directed apex; TS 2-2a looped over retrolateral edge of conductor, TS 2 not strongly developed distally, TS 2a projecting beyond distal rim of conductor; TS 1 very small, obscured by TS 2-3, not visible in ventral view. Female: Unknown.

Austrarchaea westi is known only from Mount Williams, on the Lamb Range 11 km west of Cairns (Figs 21, 25). The two known specimens were collected in high altitude tropical rainforest.