Sydney Funnel-web Spider

Facts about Sydney Funnel-web Spiders, "Scientific name for Sydney Funnel-web Spider is Atrax robustus". A Sydney Funnel-web Spider is also commonly known as Funnel Web Spider or Sydney Funnelweb Spider.

Physical Appearance of Sydney Funnel-web Spiders

The Sydney Funnel-webs appear shiny with a variety of dark brown to black in color, and has finger-like spinnerets – the organs they use to spin the silk web at the end of the abdomen.

When observed well, you will notice that the males Sydney Funnel-web Spider have a large spur that projects from the middle of the second pair of their legs. They normally range in between 19/32 to 1 3/8 (1.5 cm – 3.5 cm) in length.

Behavior of Sydney Funnel-web Spiders

The Sydney Funnel-webs Spiders will become aggressive when threatened; they will rear and display their impressive fangs.

The male like wander around pretty much, and they can sometimes get trapped in houses. The male Sydney Funnel-web Spiders have one of the most toxic venom to humans, though not all funnel-web bites can be life threatening. While the venom of juvenile and the female Sydney Funnel-web Spiders is less toxic.

The males will leave their burrows and will wander over the summer and autumn in search of females to mate with.

Feeding and Diet of Sydney Funnel-web Spiders

Sydney Funnel-web Spider likes to hide in sheltered sites like under the logs or rocks where they will find a cool, humid climate. The Sydney Funnel-web Spider will rush out when they site a potential prey such as a cockroach, snail, small lizards or beetles that walked across the silken trip-lines that it places around the outer side of its burrow.

Distribution of Sydney Funnel-web Spiders

They commonly occur in New South Wales. The Sydney Funnel-web Spider favor the forested upland area that surrounds the lower, more open country of central Cumberland Basin. They do quite well in sandy clay, basaltic or shale soils that can retain moisture quite effectively.

The Sydney Funnel-web Spider scientifically known as Atrax robustus, is probably one of the most notorious spiders in the world. The Sydney Funnel-web Spider have a fearsome reputation some of which is true and some probably exaggerated.

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.

The muscles in a Sydney 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 Sydney 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 Sydney 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 Sydney 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 Sydney Funnel-web Spiders leg has six joints, giving the Sydney Funnel-web Spider 48 leg joints. The spider’s body has oil on it, so the Sydney Funnel-web Spider doesn't stick to it’s own web.

A Sydney Funnel-web Spiders stomach can only take liquids, so a Sydney 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 Sydney 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 Sydney Funnel-web Spider’s reproductive opening.

Sydney 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 Sydney Funnel-web Spiders need to shed their exoskeleton. The 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 Sydney Funnel-web Spiders are usually bigger than males.
Female Sydney Funnel-web Spiders lay eggs on a bed of silk, which she creates right after mating. Once the female Sydney Funnel-web Spider lays her eggs, she will than cover them with more silk.

Sydney Funnel-web Spiders have oversize brains.
In the Sydney 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

Sydney 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 Sydney Funnel-web Spider’s gland that makes the poison and the stomach, fangs, mouth, legs, eyes and brain. Sydney 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 Sydney Funnel-web Spider bites it. The next part of the Sydney 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.