Hey! come and learn some of the most fascinating funnel web spider facts. Australian funnel web spiders belong to the subfamily of Hexathelidae. They are also called Atracinae but it is not the common name. The Atracinae comprises three genera including Illawarra, Hadronyche, and Atrax. They are extremely venomous. In the last 100 years, more than 27 people had died due to the funnel web spiders bite all throughout Australia.
Australian Funnel Web Spider Facts
The length of these funnel web spiders varies from 1 to 5 cm (0.4″ to 2″).
They can be recognized by brown color, black, or even blue-black color together with a shiny naked carapace.
These species have fangs that are facing down towards the body and do not direct each other. These fangs are powerful enough to pierce through the fingernails.
The Australian funnel web spiders build their habitats in abandon burrows underneath the rocks or crevices, tree trunks or cavities, rotting logs, and in other cool and moist habitats. These spiders habitats are few meters above the ground. You might come across these habitats in lawns or in other suburban rockeries.
They do not cover their habitats which some other spiders usually do.
These species are commonly found across the island of Australia: South Australia, Queensland, and New South Wales.
They are also one of the deadliest spiders in the world.
They may react actively in defense or if feel threatened.
According to the study, these spiders inject considerable amount of venom in their 10 – 25% of bites.
Although they react actively, funnel web spiders are not normally regarded as aggressive species.
Photo by: Lauren Shea
Species
- Sydney funnel-web spider
- Northern funnel-web spider
- Adelaide funnel-web spider
- Tree funnel-web spider or Southern funnel-web spider
- Eyre Peninsula funnel-web spider
- Flinders funnel-web spider
- Northern Rivers funnel-web spider or Northern Tree funnel-web spider
- Toowoomba funnel-web spider or Fraser Island funnel-web spider
- Victorian funnel-web spider
- Cascade funnel-web spider
- Tasmanian funnel-web spider
- Blue Mountains funnel-web spider
Sydney Funnel Web Spider Facts
The Sydney funnel web spider (Atrax robustus) is another funnel web spider that typically exists within the radius of 100 km (62 miles) of New South Wales and Sydney (Australia).
The length of these species ranging from 1 to 5 cm (0.39 to 2.0 inches); and they appear as brown, black blue-black color. Like the Australian funnel web spider, the carapace is naked and shiny.
The males have longer legs in comparison to the females.
The females are larger than males.
Sydney funnel web spiders are strong territorial species.
They construct their habitats in burrows in the form of tunnels.
The females are expected to live longer than males.
These types of spiders are mostly found in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, the Hunter River of Illawarra region, with some species exist in Canberra.
They are highly venomous spiders but the venom of these species does not upset the nervous system of certain mammals except humans.
