A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia

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  • sharpiefan
    Pro-metric Space Cadet
    • Aug 2013
    • 5267

    A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia

    /* Sorry, Barney. */

    A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia (ARTICLE LINK)

    Excerpt
    This is one fellow you do NOT want to find in your shoe. The Australian Reptile Park has just been handed an absolute whopper of a male funnel web spider - not just the most toxic spider in Australia, but the entire world.

    He's so big that the reptile park team have given him the most appropriate name they could think of - Colossus.

    The Australian funnel web is dangerous. The venom of the most toxic of the 35 species, the Sydney funnel web, can easily kill an adult human.

    To top it off, the males are not just aggressive, but likely to hide in human habitation when on the prowl for a mate.

    Their deadliness also makes their venom very valuable - for making antivenom, the antidote that has ensured no one has died from a funnel web bite since 1981, even though 30-40 people are bitten every year.

    That's why, instead of getting smooshed, Colossus was brought to the Australian Reptile Park, which is home to Australia's venom milking program.

    He's a beauty, his legspan reaching 7.8 centimetres (3 inches). Usually, male funnel web spiders reach between 1 to 5 centimetres.
    #include [std-disclaimer]

    Hope the voyage is a long one.
    May there be many a summer morning when,
    with what pleasure, what joy,
    you come into harbors seen for the first time...

    Ithaka, by Cavafy
    (Keeley - Sherrard translation)
  • David W Pratt
    Senior Member
    • May 2005
    • 12326

    #2
    Re: A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia

    In many spider species, the females are larger than the males; a sobering thought.
    I doubt that their venom is poisonous only to primates, and not to other mammals.

    Comment

    • SKIP KILPATRICK
      Senior Member
      • Jan 2013
      • 13573

      #3
      Re: A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia

      Jiminy Crickets! How do you people live down there? Is there anything in Oz that won't kill you?


      Skip

      ---This post is delivered with righteous passion and with a solemn southern directness --
      ...........fighting against the deliberate polarization of politics...

      Comment

      • Jim Bow
        Normcore
        • Jul 2008
        • 24003

        #4
        Re: A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia

        The only thing that will stop that bad spider is a good spider ... With a gun.
        “Come, come, my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles and see the world is moving" - Elizabeth Cady Stanton

        Comment

        • P.I. Stazzer-Newt
          obnoxiously persistent.
          • Jan 2005
          • 26007

          #5
          Re: A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia

          Originally posted by David W Pratt
          In many spider species, the females are larger than the males; a sobering thought.
          I doubt that their venom is poisonous only to primates, and not to other mammals.


          Primates far more susceptible....
          I'd much rather lay in my bunk all freakin day lookin at Youtube videos .

          Comment

          • Dave Hadfield
            Senior Member
            • Apr 2000
            • 7461

            #6
            Re: A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia

            I always wondered how the aboriginal people made out with the nasty critters, statistically, walking around barefoot from birth. The little kids must have occasionally suffered bites and stings.

            Comment

            • The Bigfella
              Banned
              • Oct 2006
              • 11600

              #7
              Re: A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia

              Originally posted by Dave Hadfield
              I always wondered how the aboriginal people made out with the nasty critters, statistically, walking around barefoot from birth. The little kids must have occasionally suffered bites and stings.
              I've had a couple of bare-footed encounters with male funnel web spiders. Near misses. Once in an outdoors toilet, back in the early '70's and again in the 90's in my front yard.

              I have, however, been bitten - twice - by a female funnel web spider. I can still feel it now, 25 or so years later. A minor pain in my right buttock. Yeah, bitten on the arse. It had crawled into my overalls, that had been hanging near the wood for the fire. The spider had come inside with the wood (perish the thought.... I'd carried it in). It bit me not long after I put the overalls on - when I bent over. It only stung about the same as a green ant bite - a nasty sting. Next time I bent over, it bit me again. I ripped it apart, scratching at the bite. Took the remains to the doctor, who examined them and pronounced it to be a female, so non-fatal. He sent me home with instructions to call an ambulance if I started to foam at the mouth.

              The other differences between males and the females, other than overall size and abdomen size, is that the males have spurs on their front legs to hold the females off.... in a vain attempt to avoid being eaten after mating.

              Comment

              • Art Haberland
                Fluent in Typo
                • May 2015
                • 10190

                #8
                Re: A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia

                Originally posted by Jim Bow
                The only thing that will stop that bad spider is a good spider ... With a gun.
                "If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito"

                -Dalai Lama

                Comment

                • Canoeyawl
                  .
                  • Jun 2003
                  • 37704

                  #9
                  Re: A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia

                  About 4" across, eh?

                  Comment

                  • JayInOz
                    Senior Member
                    • Nov 2009
                    • 8088

                    #10
                    Re: A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia

                    I used to catch big ones in the leaf litter around the toilets at the little bush primary school I went to. I showed one to the teacher one day, who said I didn't know what I was talking about- funnel web spiders weren't found west of the Blue Mountains. Years later there was a radio interview with a feller who collected them for their venom- and who said that his favourite place to find them was in the scrub around Hargraves- where I went to school. JayInOz

                    Comment

                    • The Bigfella
                      Banned
                      • Oct 2006
                      • 11600

                      #11
                      Re: A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia

                      We got the North Coast Funnel Web in Coffs Harbour, where I went to school. I took one in to school once for show and tell, and one of my teachers freaked out a bit.

                      Comment

                      • The Bigfella
                        Banned
                        • Oct 2006
                        • 11600

                        #12
                        Re: A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia

                        How about less toxic, but larger

                        Comment

                        • gypsie
                          NSW Australia
                          • Jun 2010
                          • 8183

                          #13
                          Re: A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia

                          Just scooped a male funnel web out of the dirty laundry pile yesterday. It didn't seem perturbed, probably exhausted from trying to dig its way out of a pile of dirty socks.

                          Normally when i find a funnel web they are quite prepared to put up a fight. Strangly disconcerting to meet a tiny, other worldly black, creature that has no fear of you at all - and that can kill you!

                          i picked it up with the old glass and piece of card technique. As i studied it, sitting there under the upside down glass i recalled that it can inject venom through a leather shoe. The thin piece of card between my hand and it was suddenly very thin indeed.
                          It's all fun and games until Darth Vader comes.

                          Comment

                          • The Bigfella
                            Banned
                            • Oct 2006
                            • 11600

                            #14
                            Re: A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia

                            Originally posted by gypsie
                            Just scooped a male funnel web out of the dirty laundry pile yesterday. It didn't seem perturbed, probably exhausted from trying to dig its way out of a pile of dirty socks.

                            Normally when i find a funnel web they are quite prepared to put up a fight. Strangly disconcerting to meet a tiny, other worldly black, creature that has no fear of you at all - and that can kill you!

                            i picked it up with the old glass and piece of card technique. As i studied it, sitting there under the upside down glass i recalled that it can inject venom through a leather shoe. The thin piece of card between my hand and it was suddenly very thin indeed.
                            And then the murders started...

                            Comment

                            • Rum_Pirate
                              Banned
                              • Apr 2007
                              • 22881

                              #15
                              Re: A Giant Specimen of World's Most Toxic Spider Was Caught in Australia

                              Not sure where it ranks in 'toxicity' but my wife was bitten by a Brown Recluse spider six(6) weeks ago.

                              This is the status of the bite this morning:

                              Comment

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