The male has a nearly spherical abdomen.
The abdomen lacks projecting dorsal humps.
The male Zephyrarchaea porchi has a reddish-brown hardened plate on the upper abdomen. It extends from the front and covers about the anterior two-thirds of the abdomen’s dorsal surface.
University students contributed to the discovery. A male collected at Bimbi Park, Victoria, by Nicholas Porch and Deakin University Wildlife Field Studies students on 2–5 November 2011 became the specimen on which the new species was described.
The name porchi honours Dr Porch for first discovering the species in the Otway Range. The locality lies about 2.2 kilometres north of Cape Otway Lighthouse. Preserved in a museum, the specimen was examined in detail, including its head profile, legs and male reproductive structures. A discovery during field studies became a new species name published the following year.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The 2012 authors considered conservation concern unlikely at that time because protected forest was abundant near the collection locality. The Otways also have programmes addressing plant dieback. A 2023 Parks Victoria account describes mapping disease occurrence, prioritising protection areas and training staff and communities to prevent its spread. Alongside such regional vegetation conservation, examining the understorey and occurrence of this spider could help inform its habitat conservation.