Identifying Funnel-web Spiders

Female Blue Mountains Funnel-web Spider, Hadronyche versuta. Photo: M Gray © Australian Museum.

Male Northern Tree Funnel-web Spider, Hadronyche formidabilis. Photo: M Gray © Australian Museum.

• Shiny carapace
• Deeply curved groove (fovea)
• No obvious body pattern
• Eyes closely grouped
• Four spinnerets, largest with last segment longer than wide
• Lower lip (labium) studded with short, blunt spines
• Modified male second leg (usually with a mating spur or grouped spines)

An obvious, conical projection or 'spur' on the lower side of the middle segment (tibia) of the second leg (about halfway along) is characteristic of the genus Atrax, exemplified by the Sydney Funnel-web Spider, Atrax robustus. Males of all other funnel-web species (currently placed in the genus Hadronyche) either have a blunt, spine-covered tibial swelling, or a few spines only, on the second leg. Note also the mating organ on the male palp.

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Copyright © Australian Museum, 2002