Funnel-web spider

One of the most dangerous spiders

The Funnel-web spider lives in southeastern Australia. It is infamous and dangerous because of its aggressiveness and strong venom.

Appearance and characteristics

With a body length of up to 5 cm, its fangs are big and powerful enough to penetrate fingernails and soft shoes to inject their poison. The funnel-web spider is one of the world's most venomous spiders, and maybe the most deadly, but no deaths have occurred since they began to produce antiserum against the venom in 1981. All deaths that were investigated were caused by male spiders. This is due to two things.

Partly because the male's poison is six times stronger than the female’s and partly because he wanders outside the cavity significantly more. The silk-clad entrance to the 30 cm deep burrow is shaped like a funnel that gradually changes into a tunnel leading to the burrow. This funnel has given the spider its name.

Feeding and catching

The spider produce silk 'trip-lines' radiating out from the entrance of the funnel. The spidersits just inside the entrance with its front legs on the trip-lines. When a small animal walks across the lines the funnel-web spider senses the vibrations and races out to grab its meal and kill it with an injection of venom from the it's large fangs. You recognize Funnel-web spider silk threads in front of their holes and on the two enlarged outer spin warts that protrude from the hindquarters.