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The D’Aguilar Range of subtropical south-eastern Queensland (Australia), harbours an upland rainforest biota characterised by high levels of endemic diversity. Following recent phylogenetic and biogeographic research into the open-holed trapdoor spiders of the genus Namea Raven, 1984 (family Anamidae), remarkable levels of sympatry for a single genus of mygalomorph spiders were recorded from the D’Aguilar Range. It is now known that eight different species in the genus can be found in the D’Aguilar uplands, with five apparently endemic to rainforest habitats. In this paper we present a phylogenetic and taxonomic synopsis of the remarkable anamid fauna of the D’Aguilar Range: a key to the eight species is provided, and four new species of Namea are described (N. gloriosa sp. nov., N. gowardae sp. nov., N. nebo sp. nov. and N. nigritarsus sp. nov.). In shining a spotlight on the mygalomorph spiders of this region, we highlight the D’Aguilar Range as a hotspot of subtropical rainforest diversity, and an area of considerable conservation value.

The open-holed trapdoor spiders of the genus Teyl Main, 1975 from the Pilbara bioregion of Western Australia are investigated. A single endemic species from the southern Pilbara, T. heuretes sp. nov., is newly described, representing the northern-most occurrence of the genus in Australia. Legacy molecular data for Australian Nemesiidae, along with newly generated sequences for all described species of Teyl known from Western Australia, are analysed using Maximum Likelihood methods, providing molecular data for T. heuretes and an expanded phylogenetic assessment of the genus.

The species of the millipede genus Antichiropus Attems, 1911 found in the Pilbara region of Western Australia are reviewed, and 33 new species are described. The new species are: A. anguinus Car, n. sp., A. antius Car, n. sp., A. apricus Car, n. sp., A. cirratus Car, n. sp., A. confragus Car, n. sp., A. cristatus Car, n. sp., A. cucumeraceous Car, n. sp., A. cunicularis Car, n. sp, A. echinus Car, n. sp., A. filiolus Car, n. sp., A. forcipatus Car, n. sp., A. georginae Car, n. sp., A. gibbus Car, n. sp., A. hystricosus Car, n. sp., A. julianneae Car, n. sp., A. literulus Car, n. sp., A. lucyae Car, n. sp., A. nicholasi Car, n. sp., A. nimbus Car, n. sp., A. patriciae Car, n. sp., A. pendiculus Car, n. sp., A. picus Car, n. sp., A. procerus Car, n. sp., A. quaestionis Car, n. sp., A. rupinus Car, n. sp., A. salutus Car, n. sp., A. servulus Car, n. sp., A. simmonsi Car, n. sp., A. sloanae Car, n. sp., A. spathion Car, n. sp., A. uvulus Car, n. sp., A. verutus Car, n. sp. and A. vindicatus Car, n. sp.. The number of described Antichiropus species now stands at 72. Two species (A. julianneae Car, n. sp. and A. pendiculus Car, n. sp.) lack one diagnostic feature of the genus, namely a solenomere process, but are included here because they conform to the genus definition in all other characters. We also obtained sequence data from four mitochondrial genes (cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 [COI], cytochrome c oxidase subunit 3 [COIII], cytochrome B [CytB], and 12S rRNA [12S]), and one nuclear gene (28S rRNA [28S]) for 19 species. Three main clades were recovered: one in the northern Pilbara, one in the southern Pilbara, and one just outside the south-western margin of the Pilbara.

The pseudoscorpion genus Verrucachernes Chamberlin, 1947 is widely distributed in the Old World tropics, with three named Australasian and West Pacific species and two from Africa. A review of some pseudoscorpions described from India has revealed that Withius parvus Beier, 1930 (currently in the genus Metawithius) and Pselaphochernes indicus Beier, 1974 are misplaced and actually belong to the genus Verrucachernes Chamberlin, 1947, forming the new combinations V. parvus (Beier, 1930) comb. nov. and V. indicus (Beier, 1974) comb. nov., respectively. Both species possess the single, large, rounded spermatheca and other features typical of Verrucachernes.

Modern taxonomy and systematics profit from an invaluable tool that has been developed in the course of more than a century by intense discussions and negotiations of generations of zoologists and palaeontologists: The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN 1999, 2012). The main goal of the Code is “to promote stability and universality in the scientific names of animals and to ensure that the name of each taxon is unique and distinct” (Melville 1995, ICZN 1999: 2). The provisions of the Code are generally accepted and thoroughly applied by the scientific community. Exceptions, such as the one described below, are very rare.

A combined molecular and morphological approach was used to revise the Australian spiny trapdoor spiders of the genus Blakistonia Hogg. Where possible, our molecular approach used sequence data from the COI barcoding gene, which were analysed using Bayesian, RAxML and neighbour-joining approaches. These molecular data were combined with morphology to describe and diagnose the genus, to redescribe the type (and only previously valid) species, B. aurea Hogg, 1902, and to diagnose, describe and map 19 new species: B. bassi sp. n., B. bella sp. n., B. birksi sp. n., B. carnarvon sp. n., B. emmottiorum sp. n., B. gemmelli sp. n., B. hortoni sp. n., B. mainae sp. n., B. maryae sp. n., B. newtoni sp. n., B. nullarborensis sp. n., B. olea sp. n., B. parva sp. n., B. pidax sp. n., B. plata sp. n., B. raveni sp. n., B. tariae sp. n., B. tunstilli sp. n., and B. wingellina sp. n. The genus Blakistonia is found to be distributed throughout the Australian arid and semi-arid zones, from the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia to central Queensland and western Victoria.

Carolus Linnaeus’ contribution to the study of the smaller arachnid orders was modest with the description of four taxa: the pseudoscorpions Acarus cancroides and A. scorpioides, the whip scorpion Phalangium caudatum, and the whip spider P. reniforme. Since then, more than 5,100 species have been named in eight orders by a plethora of researchers. Trends in species descriptions over time are explored; the presence of different accumulation curves for some orders is thought to be due to advances in the study of morphology combined with a greater focus on collecting small arachnids in tropical ecoregions. Pseudoscorpion species richness is examined against log-transformed area data for all countries of the world. Anomalies, such as the poor representation of pseudoscorpion diversity in some large countries such as China, appear to be due to a low number of active researchers.

The classification and diversity estimates of the order Pseudoscorpiones (Harvey 2011) are here updated. There are 26 Recent families, 454 genera, and 3,533 species; fossil taxa include 1 family, 11 genera, 41 species. Taxon numbers are calculated to the end of 2012.

A study of selected species in the nemesiid spider genus Aname L. Koch, 1873 from the Pilbara bioregion of Western Australia was undertaken using molecular and morphological techniques. Bayesian and parsimony analyses of mitochondrial sequence data from the Cytochrome c Oxidase subunit I (COI) gene found evidence for four species, confirming our initial morphological examination of adult male specimens. These four species are here described as A. mellosa n. sp., A. aragog n. sp., A. ellenae n. sp. and A. marae n. sp. Only the female of A. mellosa n. sp. is described.

Five species of the whip spider genus Sarax are recognized from Borneo, with the following four species newly described: Sarax yayukae sp. nov. from Sabah (Malaysia), West and Central Kalimantan (Indonesia), and three species from East Kalimantan, S. cavernicola sp. nov., S. sangkulirangensis sp. nov., and S. mardua sp. nov.. Sarax mardua and S. cavernicola have pale coloration, reduced eyes and elongate legs suggesting troglomorphic adaptations to cave environments. The characters diagnosing the family Charinidae and the genus Sarax are discussed and revised. The distribution patterns of Sarax species in Southeast Asia, especially in Borneo Island, are discussed in relation to their habitat preferences. The generic status of Stygophrynus moultoni Gravely 1915 (Charontidae) is briefly discussed.

The first pararchaeid species to be recorded from outside Australia or New Zealand, Flavarchaea humboldti n. sp., is described from female specimens collected near the summit of Mont Humboldt, New Caledonia. Morphological and behavioural data are further described for Western Australian species of Ozarchaea Rix, with the spinneret spigot morphology of O. harveyi Rix imaged under a scanning electron microscope, and the egg sac of O. westraliensis Rix described for the first time. Pararchaeid spinnerets possess two major ampullate gland spigots on the anterior lateral spinnerets and no triad on the posterior lateral spinnerets; such a spinneret spigot arrangement does not support the placement of the Pararchaeidae in the superfamily Araneoidea, and further research is needed to test the phylogenetic position of this enigmatic family.