Victorian Funnel-web Spider

Facts about Victorian Funnel Web Spiders, "Scientific name for Victorian Funnel-web Spider is Hadronyche modesta". Victorian Funnel Web Spider has a shiny black cephalothorax – means a fuse head and thorax. It has a dark brown to somewhat black abdomen. The male Victorian Funnel Web Spider is kind of similar to the females, although their legs and cephalothorax have a polished luster. In regards to form the Victorian Funnel Web Spider is similar to a Melbourne Trap-door Spider, though the body is generally quite smaller and darker and it lacks the rib-like marks on top of the abdomen.

The male Victorian Funnel Web Spider averages a length of 20 mm, while the female Victorian Funnel Web Spider can reach up to a length of 30 mm.

The Victorian Funnel Web Spider can not jump nor swim, but funny enough they can stay for long hours inside the pool and only supported by the air bubbles.

Though it is not an aggressive creature, however one might get bitten and they will get a headache and eventually get sick.

Victorian Funnel Web Spiders have two body parts, the front part of the body is called the Cephalothorax-(the thorax and fused head of spiders). Also on this part of the body is the Victorian Funnel Web Spider’s gland that makes the poison and the stomach, fangs, mouth, legs, eyes and brain. Victorian Funnel Web Spiders also have these tiny little leg-type things called (pedipalps) that are next to the fangs. They are used to hold food while the spider bites it. The next part of the Victorian Funnel Web Spiders body is the abdomen and the abdomens back end is where there is the spinnerets and where the silk producing glands are located.

Habitat and Biology of Victorian Funnel-web Spiders

The Victorian Funnel Web Spiders are common in the Dandenong Ranges area. Both the male and the females of this species have the same habits and behavior to Melbournce Trap-door Spider. The female will mostly remain in or around the silk-lined burrow.

During the late summer and autumn, the Victorian Funnel Web Spider male will wander searching for a mating partner and may enter into the buildings.

Victorian Funnel Web Spiders have oversize brains.
In the Victorian Funnel Web Spider the oxygen is bound to "hemocyanin" a copper-based protein that turns their blood blue, a molecule that contains copper rather than iron. Iron-based hemoglobin in red blood cells turns the blood red

The Victorian Funnel Web Spider will use traps to catch their prey. The trap is usually made up of strands of silk that radiates from the burrow entrance. During the night times the Victorian Funnel Web Spider will sit just at the entrance with its legs in contact with the silken strands. When it gets a feel of an insect tripping the set trap, it immediately pounces on it.

Diet of Victorian Funnel-web Spiders

Victorian Funnel Web Spider will mostly feed on insects, but at times they will catch small lizards or frogs.

The muscles in a Victorian Funnel Web Spiders legs pull them inward, but the spider can't extend its legs outward. It will pump a watery liquid into its legs that pushes them out. A Victorian Funnel Web Spider’s legs and body are covered with lots of hair and these hairs are water-repellent, which trap a thin layer of air around the body so the Victorian Funnel Web Spiders body doesn't get wet. It allows them to float, this is how some spiders can survive under water for hours. A Victorian Funnel Web Spider feels its prey with chemo sensitive hairs on its legs and than feels if the prey is edible. The leg hair picks up smells and vibrations from the air. There are at minimum, two small claws that are at the end of the legs. Each spiders leg has six joints, giving the Victorian Funnel Web Spider 48 leg joints. The Victorian Funnel Web Spider’s body has oil on it, so the spider doesn't stick to it’s own web.

A Victorian Funnel Web Spiders stomach can only take liquids, so a Victorian Funnel Web Spider needs to liquefy their food before they eat. They bite on their prey and empty its stomach liquids into the pray which turns it into a soup for them to drink.

A male Victorian Funnel Web Spider has two appendages called "pedipalps" a sensory organ, instead of a penis, which is filled with sperm and insert by the male into the female Victorian Funnel Web Spider’s reproductive opening.

Victorian Funnel Web Spiders do not have a skeletons. They have a hard outer shell called an exoskeleton-(a rigid external covering for the body in some invertebrate animals). The exoskeleton is hard, so it can’t grow with the spider. The young Victorian Funnel Web Spiders need to shed their exoskeleton. The Victorian Funnel Web Spider has to climb out of the old shell through the cephalothorax. Once out, they must spread themselves out before the new exoskeleton will harden. Know they have some room to grow. They stop growing once they fill this shell. Female Victorian Funnel Web Spiders are usually bigger than males.
Female Victorian Funnel Web Spiders lay eggs on a bed of silk, which she creates right after mating. Once the female Victorian Funnel Web Spider lays her eggs, she will than cover them with more silk.

Spiders belong to a group of animals called "arachnids", mites and Scorpions and a tick is also in the arachnid family. An Arachnids is a creature with eight legs, two body parts, no antennae or wings and are not able to chew on food. Spiders are not insects because insects have three main body parts and six legs and most insects have wings.

The Arachnids are even in a larger group of animals called "arthropods" an invertebrate animal of the large phylum Arthropoda, which also include spiders, crustaceans and insects. They are the largest group in the animal world, about 80% of all animals come from this group. There are over a million different species. There are more than 40,000 different types of spiders in the world.