Spiders are the most species-rich group of arachnids alongside mites. With more than 46,000 species they occur in all regions of the world, including more than 1000 in Germany. The spider collection is very valuable and includes several thousand species. Almost 900 of them are represented with type-material, i.e. the animals from which the species were originally described. In general, the collection has a strong focus on the Australian and South Pacific fauna, including the oldest large spider collection from Australia.