Kane Christensen, a spider enthusiast and former head of spiders at the Australian Reptile Park, has helped discover a new species of Funnel-Web Spider called the Newcastle funnel-web. This larger species, found mainly around Newcastle, has distinct differences in its appearance, particularly its reproductive organs, compared to the Sydney funnel-web spider. Scientists believe the Newcastle funnel-web is a much rarer species and are keeping its exact locations secret for conservation purposes.
Kane Christensen, spider enthusiast and former head of spiders at the Australian Reptile Park, looks at a new species of Funnel Web Spider namedKane Christensen, spider enthusiast and former head of spiders at the Australian Reptile Park, looks at a new species of Funnel Web Spider namedKane Christensen’s passion is an arachnophobe’s nightmare.
“Even though they were almost identical morphologically, what was originally described with this other name is a different species,” says Dr Bruno Alves Buzatto of Flinders University, a co-author of the paper reclassifying the spiders.The Newcastle funnel-web is “a very distinctive spider in terms of its evolutionary history”, says Prof Kris Helgen, director of the Australian Museum Research Institute. It last shared a common ancestor with the Sydney funnel-web spider 17m years ago.
The spiders “don’t have a penis to directly transfer sperm from the male to the female,” Buzatto says. “They use these things that we call copulatory bulbs,” which are located on the spiders’ pedipalps – miniature leg-like appendages at the front of their face.The copulatory organ on the Newcastle funnel-web “looks totally different to everything else,” Christensen says.
What makes Sydney funnel-web venom so deadly is a group of peptides called delta-atracotoxins, which can cause muscle fasciculations, respiratory and circulatory failure in humans. “The peptides are quite active against insects but coincidentally happen to knock primates around in a big way,” Wilson says.Female Sydney funnel-webs are not nearly as dangerous because the delta toxin family isn’t found in their venom.
FUNNEL-WEB SPIDER NEW SPECIES AUSTRALIA VENOM CONSERVATION
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