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Australian scientists discover larger species of deadly funnel web spiders

Australian scientists have newly classified a bigger species of the Sydney funnel web spider, one of the world's deadliest, saying the new species could inject more venom, in research released on Jan. 13, 2025. The new funnel web species has earned the nickname of 'Big Boy' and was first discovered in the early 2000s near Newcastle, 170 km (105 miles) north of Sydney, by Kane Christensen, a spider enthusiast and former head of spiders at the Australian Reptile Park.

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Transcript
00:00The male of the new species, it's a lot larger.
00:15Leg span's up to 9, 9.5 centimetres I think we're about now is one of the records.
00:20The abdomen's a lot bigger, the legs are a lot thicker, the copulatory organs are a lot
00:24bigger as well.
00:26It's just an all over bigger spider and there are some little slight colour variations which
00:31can happen in the other Sydney funnel web as well, but they even move slightly different.
00:35It's again something you might not pick up if you saw it once or twice, but when you
00:38see them every single day it is definitely noticeable.
00:41When we go collecting them, this is about the size we're expecting.
00:45It's amazing.
00:46This size is still capable of killing someone my size, so very medically significant.
00:52Now when we look at it and you see the size of this one next to it, it's substantially
00:57larger, so it's extremely exciting.
01:01The funnel web antivenom will work across the board.
01:04The one that the Australian Reptile Park makes from the Sydney funnel web works across all
01:08species of funnel web, so there's nothing to worry about there.
01:12This particular spider is a lot larger.
01:14Its venom glands are a lot larger and its fangs are a lot longer, so there is a possibility
01:18for possibly a deeper penetration through gloves possibly and also the venom glands
01:25are larger, so there's a chance there might be more venom injected.
01:28Now we have it confirmed that it is a different species, there's a whole bunch to learn about
01:33it.
01:34They have been found primarily at night, the same as most other male funnel webs would
01:37be.
01:38Sometimes you might find them in a garage or in a bedroom or somewhere in the house
01:41where they might have wandered in during the night and then they get sprung the next morning
01:46when the people are out and about moving, you pick up a towel or a sheet off the floor
01:49or some shoes and the little male has been hiding there overnight.
01:53I would not recommend touching them, that's for sure.
01:55They do give copious amounts of venom.
01:57When I was extracting venom from these ones, they do give a lot of venom, so yeah, definitely
02:02not a hands-on.
02:03It's just not often you find something that's visible to the naked eye, living in suburbia
02:07around a lot of people and their houses to actually be found out that it is something
02:13that's new to what we now know.
02:15That's amazing.
02:16I think that's so exciting and it's refreshing and it's time to start working on learning
02:20more about this spider.
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