Sydney funnel-web spider
| Sydney funnel-web spider | |
|---|---|
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| Male (top) and female Atrax robustus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Mygalomorphae |
| Family: | Hexathelidae |
| Genus: | Atrax |
| Species: | A. robustus |
| Binomial name | |
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Atrax robustus O.P.-Cambridge, 1877 |
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| Synonyms | |
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The Sydney funnel-web spider (Atrax robustus) is a species of venomous mygalomorph spider native to eastern Australia, usually found within a 100 km (62 mi) radius of Sydney. It is a member of a group of spiders known as Australian funnel-web spiders. Its bite is capable of causing serious injury or death in humans if left untreated.
The Reverend Octavius Pickard-Cambridge was the first to describe the Sydney funnel-web spider, from a female specimen housed in the British Museum in 1877. Establishing the genus Atrax, he named it Atrax robustus. The species name is derived from the Latin robustus "strong/sturdy/mature". Some years later, William Joseph Rainbow described a male Sydney funnel-web as a new species—Euctimena tibialis—from a spider he found under a log in Turramurra, and another from Mosman. He coined the scientific name from the Ancient Greek euktimenos "well built" and Latin tibialis "of the tibia", having noted its prominent tibial spur. In the same paper, he described a female Sydney funnel web as yet another species—Poikilomorpha montana—from a specimen collected from Jamison Valley and Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains. Its species name was derived from poikilomorphia "variety of form" referring to the eyes of different sizes, and montana "of the mountains". In February 1927, a young boy died after being bitten on the hand after playing with a big black spider on the laundry steps of his home in the Sydney suburb of Thornleigh. He fell gravely ill and perished later that evening. Public interest in spiders surged and the police brought the dead spider to the Australian Museum, which Anthony Musgrave identified as Euctimena tibialis. He examined a series of male and female spiders collected around Sydney, and concluded that Euctimena tibialis was the male Atrax robustus due to anatomical similarities and after some males and females had been collected from the same locations.Poikilomorpha montana was classified as the same species in 1988.
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