A guide to Funnel-web spider identification
Gray, M.R.
Medical Journal of Australia 141(12-13): 837-840
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-729X PMID: 6503791 Document Number: 237247
This paper explains and figures the distinctions between funel-web spiders (Atrax spp.) and other Australian spiders which might be confused with them. It does not cover identification of the many different species of Atrax because for medical purposes it is safest to assume that all are potentially dangerous. The distribution of Atrax spp. is shown in a map: all are confined to the south-eastern region of Australia within at most ca. 250 km of the sea, from around Port Lincoln in South Australia to the south-east corner of Queensland including about the eastern third of Tasmania, so that specimens coming from elsewhere are unlikely to be Atrax. Further details of the behaviour, ecology and morphology of funnel-web spiders are given and illustrated. Colour photographs depict the male and female of A. robustus, the webs of 2 other species and a number of other spiders commonly mistaken for funnel-web spiders, or which are themselves dangerously venomous.