Funnel-web spiders, the most notorious members of our spider fauna, are found in eastern Australia. There are 36 described species of Australian funnel-web spiders and they are currently placed in three genera: Hadronyche, Atrax and Illawarra. They are medium to large spiders, varying from 1 cm-5 cm body length. Males are more lightly built than females. Body colour can vary from black to brown but the hard carapace covering the front part of the body is always sparsely haired and glossy. The lateral pair of spinning organs (spinnerets) at the end of the abdomen are longer and easily visible in Atrax spp. Hadronyche spp and Illawarra. Not all species are known to be dangerous, but several are renowned for their highly toxic and fast acting venom. The male of Atrax robustus, the Sydney Funnel-web Spider, is probably responsible for all recorded deaths (13) and many medically serious bites. This remarkable spider has become a part of Sydney's folklore and, although no deaths have been recorded since the introduction of an antivenom in 1981, it remains an icon of fear and fascination for Sydneysiders.

A male Sydney funnel-web spider, Atrax robustus. Male second leg: 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 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. This funnel-web spider (Hadronyche sp) was brought into the Australian Museum to be identified. On closer inspection it was found to be encrusted with phoretic mites (the small brown dots covering the carapace). Phoresy is where an animal attaches to another for transportation only. There are many other spiders that are sometimes mistaken for funnel-webs. Black House Spider (Badumna insignis). Elsewhere in Eastern Australia other kinds of trapdoor spiders and wishbone spiders can have a dark and glossy carapace. Funnel-web spiders live in the moist forest regions of the east coast and highlands of Australia from Tasmania to north Queensland.

They are also found in the drier open forests of the Western Slopes of the Great Dividing Range and South Australia's Gulf region. Funnel-webs of the genus Atrax have a much smaller distribution than do the more diverse members of the genus Hadronyche. The Sydney Funnel-web Spider, Atrax robustus, is found from Newcastle to Nowra and west as far as Lithgow in New South Wales. Male Sydney Funnel-web Spider (Atrax robustus) close up using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). In Sydney suburbia, funnel-web spiders mostly live in the moist upland forest areas of the Hornsby Plateau to the north and the Woronora Plateau to the south, where sheltered burrow habitats abound in both bushland and gardens. The dry, flatter areas of Western Sydney and the Cumberland Plain have fewer funnel-webs, their numbers picking up again in the foothills of the Blue Mountains. Two funnel-web species are common in the Sydney region - the Sydney Funnel-web Spider (Atrax robustus) and the Southern Tree-dwelling Funnel-web Spider (Hadronyche cerberea).

The Blue Mountains Funnel-web Spider (Hadronyche versuta) also occurs here but is only common to the west and south of Greater Sydney. While Sydney Funnel-webs were never restricted to the leafy north shore region as some would have it, Sydney real estate does give a rough guide to funnel-web density - the more expensive the area the greater the funnel-web population (the dry, sandy eastern suburbs excepted). Within Hadronyche several groups of related species are currently recognised. Illawarra wisharti is a single species in its own genus, isolated in the wet forests of the Illawarra region of New South Wales. Funnel-webs burrow in moist, cool, sheltered habitats - under rocks, in and under rotting logs, crevices, rot and borer holes in rough-barked trees. In gardens, they prefer rockeries and dense shrubberies, and are rarely found in more open situations like lawns. Rain may flood burrows and the temporary retreats of male funnel-webs, causing an increase in their activity.

Funnel-webs are very vulnerable to drying out, so high humidity is more favourable to activity outside the burrow than dry conditions. Most activity is nocturnal. Gardeners and people digging in soil may encounter funnel-webs in burrows at any time of the year. Blue Mountains Funnel-web Spider burrow entrance (Hadronyche versuta), clearly showing silk triplines radiating out from entrance. The most characteristic sign of a funnel-web's burrow is the irregular silk trip-lines that radiate out from the burrow entrance of most species. These trip-lines alert the spider to possible prey, mates or danger. Indeed if a spider burrow has obvious silk trip-lines around its rim, you can be fairly certain that it belongs to a funnel-web spider. The silk entrance to the burrow of a Sydney Funnel-web Spider has a more or less well-defined funnel-like silk entrance 'vestibule' within which is a collapsed, tunnel-like structure with one or two slit-like openings.

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