Australia (2002)

Date of issue: September 25th, 2002
Name of issue: The magic rainforest
Number of arachnid related stamps in issue: 0/6

I knew it! Ever since I have seen this sheet, I suspected there should be a spider somewhere in there. The whole artwork is crawling with bugs. Unfortunately, it took me a long time to find a high resolution scan to verify.

Sure enough, there is a tiny spider on a tree trunk on the left hand side. You need good eyes to find that one!

Michel #: B47
order: Araneae
category: souvenir sheet only

Crop:

Australia (2005)

Date of issue: October 4th, 2005
Name of issue: Down on the farm
Number of arachnid related stamps in issue: 1/6

I found this one by luck completly. There is a spider on the web located on the fence.

This is another complex issue as the stamps come as regular, there is a souvenir sheet (in two different sizes, a regular one and one in the Stamp Fun Book), self adhesives coming in booklets of 5, 10 and 20 (and they all have different covers) (as well as another booklet for the 1$ stamp), there is a Stamp Fun Book for children containing special edition single souvenir sheets as well as a collector's pack.

Michel #: 2500 (*self adhesive)
order: Araneae



Special edition souvenir sheet
(page 15 of Stamp Fun Book)

Special edition souvenir sheet (oversized version)
(page 25 of Stamp Fun Book)

Other self adhesive stamps of this series:

 

Deluxe folder:

 

Cover

 

Interior

 

Back

 

 

Booklet of 5 self adhesive stamps:

 

exterior

interior

 

Other special edition souvenir sheets of the Stamp Fun Book:

 

page 6



page 9

page 12



page 18

page 21

Other pages of the Stamp Fun Book:

Front cover (opened)



Front cover (closed)



Back cover (closed)



Back cover (opened)

 

Australia - Spiders

Date of issue: October 4t4, 2005
Name of issue: Down on the farm
Number of arachnid related stamps in issue: 1/6

Michel #: 2500 (*self adhesive)
order: Araneae

For more information on this series, click HERE

Australia (2006)

Date of issue: October 3rd, 2006
Name of issue: Dangerous Australians
Number of arachnid related stamps in issue: 1/7

This series is called “Dangerous Australians” and is quite interesting. Originally, it was supposed to include a stamp showing an Australian Red Back (Latrodectus hasselti). But because the actual spider is pretty much the same size as the image on the stamp, postal authorities were afraid it might cause panic among population… talk about arachnophobia! Our poor little spider was replaced by the Yellow Bellied Sea Snake for the official issue, but appeared on the miniature sheet of that series and a special limited semi-imperforated series was issued with our beloved black widow friend back at it’s rightful place on the 1$ stamp.

This series is kind of complex since you have the regular issue and souvenir sheet, the regular issue with self adhesive stamps, the limited edition souvenir sheet and deluxe package and there is also a deluxe package for the regular edition.

Michel #: 2725b
order: Araneae
family: Theridiidae
Latrodectus hasselti Thorell, 1870





Michel #: B64
Limited edition with Australian red back

Michel #: B63
Regular edition, note L. hasselti on souvenir sheet

Other stamps of the limited semi-perforated edition:



 

Special edition folder:

Limited edition folder - front cover

Limited edition folder - internal page

Limited edition folder - internal page

Limited edition folder - back cover

Other stamps of this series:

 

 

First Day Cover: