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SPIDER FACTS |
Description
The Victorian Funnel-web Spider is related to the Sydney funnel-web spider but has not been known to cause any serious bites or fatalities. The cephalothorax (head and thorax) and legs are shiny black and the abdomen is dark brown to black. They look like Trap-door spiders, but are smaller and darker in colour. They live in a burrow with several strands of silk radiating from around the entrance.
Size
Body length: male 25mm, Female 35mm
Habitat
Females spend most of their time in their burrow. Males often wander during late summer and autumn in search of females and may sometimes enter into buildings. Funnel-web spiders use trip-wires of silk strands radiating from the burrow entrance to catch their prey. The spider sits inside the entrance with legs touching the silken strands. When it feels the vibrations of an insect touching the silk it pounces on the prey.
Food
mostly insects, although may sometimes catch small frogs or lizards
Range
They are found in the outskirts of Melbourne in the Dandenong Ranges area.
Notes
The Victorian Funnel-web Spider venom causes symptoms such as headache and nausea, but is not a dangerous as the Sydney Funnel-web.
Classification
| Class: | Arachnida | | Order: | Mygalomorphae | | Family: | Hexathelidae | | Genus: | Hadronyche | | Species: | modesta | | Common Name: | Victorian Funnel-web Spider |
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