Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Found only in Aus­tralia within a 160-kilo­me­ter ra­dius of Syd­ney. There are other species of fun­nel-web spi­ders in East­ern Aus­tralia, Vic­to­ria, South Aus­tralia and Tas­ma­nia.

(Atkni­son, 1981; Brown, 1999)

• Biogeographic Regions
• australian
  • native

Habi­tat

Syd­ney fun­nel-web spi­ders tend to live in lush gul­lies be­neath rocks and fallen tim­ber. They also live in moist soil be­neath houses, crevices in gar­den rock­eries and com­post heaps. Their white silk webs are 20 to 60 cm long and go into ground that has sta­ble, high hu­mid­ity and low tem­per­a­tures. The en­trance is ei­ther y-shaped or t-shaped and is woven into a fun­nel, hence the name fun­nel-web spi­der.

(Mas­cord, 1980)

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Syd­ney fun­nel-web spi­ders have large fangs and venom sacs. Males grow to 25mm long while fe­males grow to 35 mm long. The color is a glossy blue-black and there are fine, vel­vety hairs cov­er­ing the ab­domen. Fun­nel-web spi­ders have shiny, solidly built limbs, a row of teeth along the fang groove and an­other row on their paired claws. Males are smaller, slim­mer, and have longer legs.

(Brown, 1999; Hunter, 1982)

• Other Physical Features
• ectothermic
• bilateral symmetry

Re­pro­duc­tion

Male re­pro­duc­tive or­gans con­sists of testes and a tube that con­nects the testes to a small open­ing. Sperm is dis­charged onto a small silk mat that the spi­ders weave. Sperm is then dis­charged into the fe­male's gen­i­tal open­ing where it is ei­ther used or stored by the fe­male. Re­pro­duc­tion usu­ally oc­curs to­wards the end of sum­mer or early fall. Males reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity at about four years of age and the fe­males take just a lit­tle bit longer. Fe­males lay from 90 to 120 yel­low-green eggs.

(Brown, 1999; Brunet, 1997)

• Key Reproductive Features
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)

Be­hav­ior

Syd­ney fun­nel-web spi­ders are soli­tary an­i­mals ex­cept when mat­ing. Fe­males tend to stay in the same lo­ca­tion ex­cept when forced out by flood­ing. Males tend to roam around in search of a mate after reach­ing sex­ual ma­tu­rity. Males lo­cate fe­males by sens­ing the fe­male's pher­e­mones.

(Gray, 1988; Atkin­son, 1981)

Food Habits

The diet of Syd­ney fun­nel-web spi­ders con­sists of bee­tles, cock­roaches, in­sect lar­vae, na­tive land snails, mil­li­pedes and oc­ca­sion­ally frogs and other small ver­te­brates. All food is taken at the edge of their 'fun­nel-webs.' The webs are made en­tirely of dry silk. In­sects often times land on the web; once they land, the trapped in­sects have trou­ble mov­ing on the slip­pery web. Syd­ney fun­nel-web spi­ders have no trou­ble mov­ing and re­peat­edly bite the trapped in­sect and takes it back into the fun­nel for feed­ing.

(Brunet, 1997)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Silk made by Syd­ney fun­nel-web spi­ders is used as crosshairs in op­ti­cal in­stru­ments.

(Over­ton, 1998)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Syd­ney fun­nel-web spi­ders are very ag­gres­sive and will at­tack. They are known to have killed at least 15 peo­ple. A bite from this spi­der will not be fatal if treated im­me­di­ately.

(Over­ton, 1998)

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

The Aus­tralian Rep­tile Park has over 1000 fun­nel-web spi­ders where the venom is being ex­tracted and tested to find a cure.

(Over­ton, 1998)

• IUCN Red List

  No special status

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Other Com­ments

Syd­ney fun­nel-web spi­ders are prob­a­bly the most deadly spi­der in the world; they do not hes­i­tate to at­tack. They have fangs that can eas­ily pen­e­trate a human fin­ger­nail. Venom of Syd­ney fun­nel-web spi­ders has dif­fer­ent af­fects on dif­fer­ent an­i­mals; hu­mans are highly af­fected by the venom.

(Atkin­son, 1981)

Con­trib­u­tors

Jason Fathal­lah (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Atkin­son, R. 1981. Nat­u­rally Oc­cur­ring In­hibitors of the Venom of Fun­nel-web Spi­ders. Aus­tralian Jour­nal, Vol. 22.

Brown, S. 2002. "Spi­der En­ven­o­ma­tions, Fun­nel Web" (On-line). eMed­i­cine. Ac­cessed 10/27/04 at http://​www.​emedicine.​com/​emerg/​topic548.​htm.

Brunet, B. 1997. Spi­der­watch: A Guide to Aus­tralian Spi­ders. Aus­tralia: New Hol­land Pub­lish­ers Pty Ltd.

Gray, M. 1988. Aus­tralian Arach­nol­ogy. Bris­bane: A.D. Austin & N.W. Heather.

Hunter, H. 1982. The uffin Book of Spi­ders. Ox­ford Press.

Mas­cord, R. 1980. Aus­tralian Spi­ders. Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Tut­tle Co..

Over­ton, M. Feb. 9, 1998. Atrax Ro­bus­tus, The Fun­nel-web Spi­der. Arach­nids Weekly Di­gest, Vol. 1.