The tree dwellers
Southern Tree Funnel-web Spider (Hadronyche cerberea). Photo: M Gray © Australian Museum.
Most funnel-webs are ground dwellers but a few live in trees. The largest of all funnel-webs is the Northern Tree Funnel-web Spider, Hadronyche formidabilis, reaching 4-5 cm. body length. These spiders live in the wet forests of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland and have been found over 30 m above ground. While many have their retreats in surface-opening branch rot-holes, some spiders appear to live and feed entirely inside the deadwood pipe of large forest trees like Tallow-wood, feeding on beetles and other insects inside this rotting wood habitat. The smaller Southern Tree Funnel-web Spider, H. cerberea, is common in the Sydney and Central Coast regions, but ranges all over eastern New South Wales south of the Hunter River. The abdomen sometimes has a light plum colouration. They make silk-lined retreats in holes and rot-crevices in a variety of rough-barked trees, including melaleuca, banksia, casuarina and eucalypts. The exposed web surface tunnel is disguised by a covering of bark or wood particles. There are often two entrances, each with trip-lines running out across the bark. Prey ranging from beetles to tree frogs are taken by these spiders.
