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Australian funnel-web spider
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Australian funnel-web spider Illustration of a Sydney funnel-web spider (Atrax robustus) showing its dark, glossy body and eight legs, with a size scale indicating a length of up to 5 centimeters or 2 inches.
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Australian funnel-web spider
Australian funnel-web spider The venomous Sydney funnel-web spider (Atrax robustus) striking. If left untreated, its bite can cause serious illness or death in humans.

Australian funnel-web spider

arachnid
Also known as: Atracidae
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Melissa Petruzzello
Melissa Petruzzello (she/her) is Assistant Managing Editor and covers plants, algae, fungi, insects, spiders, renewable energy and environmental engineering. She also handles certain topics in Christianity,...
Melissa Petruzzello
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History

Taxonomy See also list of spiders. Australian funnel-web spider, (family Atracidae), any of about 35 species and three genera of spiders native to southern and eastern Australia, several of which are potentially medically significant to humans. As burrowing spiders, they are named for their funnel-shaped webs, which open wide at the mouth of an underground tube. The burrows are typically built under rocks and in crevices or in and under rotting logs, and some arboreal...

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