Talk:Australasian funnel-web spider

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Spiders To do:

I'm fairly sure the pictures at the bottom of this page are incorrect. They look to be of the Mouse Spider genus and are commonly misconstrued as Atrax Rubustus.

Does someone know how to negotiate with the copyright holder of the photo for the Sydney funnel-web spider? I looked at many images on the www and this was the only one I've found so far that is not a black blotch against a dark grey background. (Well, maybe that's a slight exaggeration.)

Try mailing Ento/CSIRO, perhaps? The photo might be already in the public domain, though I wouldn't know. Dysprosia 00:35 27 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Does anyone know why the formatting of this page has changed? The first paragraph has been reduced to a strip about one inch wide.

Thanks.

Patrick0Moran 05:30, 29 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Probably an issue with the software update, and could well be a browser specific thing (looks fine for me). --Robert Merkel 06:06, 29 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Re: the bibliography. "Apiders"??? And if these are separate books they should be on separate lines for legibility. Book titles should be italicized. P0M 02:37, 26 May 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Range

What is the range of this spider? Is it just in Australia (or is it even in Australia?)

I second that question; as with other articles on spiders in wikipedia, the authors oddly don't seem to think it important to tell us something as basic as where the animals live!! So ok, we're supposed to just infer that these creatures live in Australia, somewhere, presumably Sydney? - just from the name? I think a basic rule for zoology articles should be, first indicate range!

[edit] "The spider will always come off worse in an encounter with a human."

What does this mean? That the spider dies after injecting venom, or what? Loganberry (Talk) 00:18, 10 September 2005 (UTC)

Everybody is free to edit -- especially nonsensical things like the example quoted above.

True, but I didn't edit since I know very little about this spider beyond about two sub-plots on Aussie soaps. Loganberry (Talk) 22:51, 10 September 2005 (UTC)

These spiders must sometimes have given a human a fatal bite before ambling away to find a true mate. I chopped the offending sentence out and added a sketch map. "New South Wales and Southern Queensland" was not much to go on as a description of the range of these spiders, but I had a look at the climate of that part of Australia and made an educated guess that climate and temperature were more relevant than political subdivisions.

The article (and the main spider article) really should be fixed to account for the fact that Hadronyche is the deadlier of the genera. (75% of their bites are "serious" compared to 17% of Atrax bites.) The focus of the article should be on the two problem genera, not just on one species that is a frequent biter. P0M 21:47, 10 September 2005 (UTC)

What does this phrase mean: "may also cause fatal envomations"? - I cannot find any reference to 'envomations' anywhere. The text is spurious, as it says the spiders "may" cause this unknown term, but ends with the phrase "although none have been recorded". Jazy510 18:05, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "moving" notes

"Sydney" is not the only geographical nickname for these spiders, and actually the so called Sydney funnel-web spider is only one of several deadly spiders (from P0M's edit summary). Uncle Ed 22:37, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Avoid Personification

I removed the comment about the spider "envonomat[ing] enthusiastically" it was redundant (after "may bite repeteadly) and read like personification. Zanerock 21:44, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Source, please

Is there a source for the claim that they get about 40 cm long? --Yooden

I doubt there is. At 40 cm it would easily be the biggest spider in the world and no book I've ever seen references this species as the biggest. I'm quite sure it is a decimal point error and it should be 4.0 cm. Especially since it later on says that they are generally smaller than tarantulas. -- Matti Nuortio, Oulu, Finland

[edit] Moved from Talk:Venomous funnel-web tarantula

iSydney funnel-web spider
Female Sydney funnel-web spider
Female Sydney funnel-web spider
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Family: Hexathelidae
Genus: Atrax
Species: A. robustus
Binomial name
Atrax robustus
Pickard-Cambridge, 1877

[edit] This doubles up another page

This page should be combined with Australian venomous funnel-web spider - no purpose in having two pages for one spider.

The word venemous is superflous in the title. They are normally just called Funnel-web spider or Funnel web spider, but the word Australian may be necessary to distinguish them from certain other spiders from other countries.

btw - speaking as someone who has lived in Sydney most of my life, I have *never* heard them called tarantulas.

Singkong2005 14:42, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

There are funnel-web spiders (not in the same suborder) that are not dangerously venomous. I suppose that is why the "venomous" part came in here.

This article has the right taxonomy box. There are two genera that need to be accounted for. P0M 10:06, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

They're simply called "funnel-web spiders" in Australia. We really need not add more to the title than is sufficent to distinguish one funnel-web from the others. I suggest Australasian because, according to the article the occur in NZ (& Asia) too (though, of course, Australasia doesn't include Asia). Jimp 17Feb06

[edit] Agree

I agree with every single point above. El T 04:32, 26 November 2005 (UTC)t

I too agree. There has been no argument against the merger in all these months. I'll merge them both to Australasian funnel-web spider. Jimp 00:25, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
I have merged the articles. I've aslo done a bit of a rewrite/reorganisation. I've removed the taxobox from the old Australian venemous funnel-web spider page (it's here now: to the left). I've also removed the following.
Until the antivenom was produced in 1980, the bite of a male  
Sydney funnel-web spider was usually fatal to humans; 14 deaths had 
been recorded.
I did so because it seems to contradict what was on the old Australian venemous funnel-web spider page. Have I removed the right stuff? Jimp 18:47, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] References to Sydney Funnel Web (Atrax) are not consistent

The araneomorph funnel-web spider not to be confused with the funnel-web tarantula and the venomous funnel-web tarantula, both of which are members of the suborder Mygalomorphae.

The venomous funnel-web tarantulas include the infamous Sydney funnel-web spider.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araneomorph_funnel-web_spider

---

The highly venomous genus Atrax used to be placed in this family, but is now in the Hexathelidae.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funnel-web_tarantula

---

The Sydney funnel-web spider (also incorrectly called a funnel-web tarantula)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_funnel-web_spider

---

So is it a Tarantula or not?

I've never favored the "tarantula" designation. It is in the same sub-order with the Theraphosidae, but not everyone in the world calls those spiders "tarantulas" -- a misnomer to begin with because people confused them with Lycosa tarentula, called the "Tarantula spider." (Spelling difference comes from two similar names for the same city in Italy.)
The main thing that needs to be sorted out is the relative venomosity of the two genera. What appeared to me to be the most authoratative document said that Atrax bites more people but has somewhat less serious venom. Possibly we will need to account for both opinions, but the bottom line is that you don't want to get bitten by either kind. P0M 10:06, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Other genera in Hexathelidae

This article focuses only on the two genera (Atrax and Hadronyche) known to be problem biters in Australia and nearby regions. But there are several other genera in Hexathelidae. One notable one is Macrothele, which contains some rather venomous (to man) spiders in Taiwan, Vietnam, and China; as well as a few far-less-harmful species in Europe. Perhaps these should be included, or else a separate article on the family as a whole should be written?

--EngineerScotty 19:14, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Most deadly spiders?

I removed a claim that female Sydney funnel-webs are the "most deadly spiders in the world", or somesuch. For one thing, it is the male funnel-webs which are more dangerous to humans; they're bigger, and they go out wandering (placing them in more frequent contact with people). This is the opposite of the black widow, where it's the female that is dangerous.

For another, there isn't really a basis for proclaiming one spider the "most deadly"; fans of the Brazilian wandering spider or the Six-eyed sand spider might have reason to object; their bites can be as nasty as funnel-web bites. (And six-eyed sand spider bites have no antivenom). Of course, the various widow spiders, including the red-back spider, still hold the record--by a longshot--for most people killed, even though their venom is less toxic than funnel-web venom. Within the genera Atrax and Hadronyche, there's ample evidence that several spiders in Hadronyche (such as H. infensa, the Fraser Island funnel-web) are at least as dangerous as A. robustus, if not more so. The various species of Hadronyche aren't found in a major metropolitan area like Sydney, however, and thus have less frequently bitten people.

--EngineerScotty 16:51, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

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