My sister was ripping up weeds in the garden (inner-west Sydney) and came across this spider today: http://i39.tinypic.com/5z2irm.jpg
She found it in the dirt as she was digging, curled up into a ball. It wasn't just wandering around on the surface.
She is convinced that it's a funnel-web but the red bits near the fangs make me doubt this. Does anyone have any idea what it could be? Or if it is in fact a funnel web?
She found it in the dirt as she was digging, curled up into a ball. It wasn't just wandering around on the surface.
She is convinced that it's a funnel-web but the red bits near the fangs make me doubt this. Does anyone have any idea what it could be? Or if it is in fact a funnel web?
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It is in fact a funnel web http://www.sonofthewaves.net/familyblog/… notice the red colouration beneath the fangs in this pic.
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Yes, I agree with Random Panther. The key to deciding what an unfamiliar spider is is to look at the key features - funnelwebs (no matter what particular variety they are) are mygalomorphs. These are 'primitive' spiders and (among other things) have switchblade fangs that are almost front-and-back oriented so that the spider tends to rear back to open the the fangs up to bite. They're rather like a snake's fangs in that regard. The 'normal' spiders have fangs that move side-to-side. You can see the fangs clearly in this photo and your sister was lucky that the spider was instinctively defensive (probably because it was disturbed while underground rather than while walking around and therefore more prepared for trouble). I don't offhand know whether females have as bad a bite as males, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to find out.
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I hate spiders...
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that's a funky looking one