Zephyrarchaea porchi Rix & Harvey 2012

The Otway Range Assassin Spider (Zephyrarchaea porchi) is a species of spider in the family Archaeidae. It is endemic to Victoria, Australia.

Holotype male: Total length 2.77; leg I femur 1.97; F1/CL ratio 1.86. Cephalothorax dark reddish-brown; legs tan brown with darker annulations; abdomen mottled grey-brown and beige, with reddish-brown dorsal scute and sclerites (Fig. 18A). Carapace relatively short (CH/CL ratio 1.70); 1.06 long, 1.81 high, 1.00 wide; ‘neck’ 0.58 wide; highest point of pars cephalica (HPC) near posterior third of ‘head’ (ratio of HPC to post-ocular length 0.69), carapace with pronounced concave depression anterior to HPC; ‘head’ moderately elevated dorsally (post-ocular ratio 0.27) (Fig. 8D). Chelicerae with proximal tuft and additional comb of accessory setae on anterior face of paturon (Fig. 18B). Abdomen 1.59 long, 1.08 wide; almost spherical in lateral profile, without dorsal hump-like tubercles; dorsal scute fused anteriorly to epigastric sclerites, extending posteriorly to cover anterior two-thirds of dorsal abdomen. Partially expanded pedipalp (Figs 18C–E) bulbous-pyriform, with gently curved, tapering embolus adjacent to conductor sclerites 1–2; tegular sclerite 1 (TS 1) porrect, slightly curved in prolateral view, with flattened, rounded apex; TS 2–3 projecting well beyond retro-distal rim of tegulum. Female: Unknown.

Zephyrarchaea porchi is known only from north of Cape Otway, in the Otway Range of southern Victoria (Fig. 28). The single known specimen was collected in a dry vertebrate pitfall trap in eucalypt forest with a dense bracken fern understorey.