The study marks a major shift in understanding the Sydney funnel-web spider, with each newly identified species occupying distinct regions.

Researchers say they used anatomical and DNA comparisons to study different populations of the Sydney funnel-web spider – one of the world’s deadliest spiders – and found there were three species, only two of which were previously known to science.

It is something researchers have suspected for 20 years. Now they know for sure the Newcastle funnel-web is bigger, scarier, and different than the rest.

“The Newcastle funnel-web, Atrax christenseni— dubbed Big Boy—is a totally new species. The ‘true’ Sydney Funnel-web, Atrax robustus centres on the North Shore of Sydney and the Central Coast, and the Southern Sydney Funnel-web, Atrax montanus, is a resurrected species name from 1914,” Loria explained.

Researchers reclassify the infamous Sydney funnel-web spider into three distinct species: Atrax robustus, Atrax montanus, and Atrax christenseni. Led

Researchers have discovered that one of Australia’s largest and deadliest spiders is actually three different species, and one of them […] The post Researchers Have Identified This Australian Spider As Being Bigger And Deadlier Than The Rest appeared first on Chip Chick.