View allAll Photos Tagged funnelweb
Altiplano Leste - Brasilia, DF, Brazil.
Inside the funnel-web, under heavy dew.
The small genus Aglaoctenus contains only five species, all from South America.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Araneomorphae
Family: Lycosidae
Subfamily: Sosippinae
Genus: Aglaoctenus Tullgren, 1905
Species: A. lagotis (Holmberg, 1876)
Binomial name: Aglaoctenus lagotis
Fazenda Grotão - DF, Brazil.
The small genus Aglaoctenus contains only five species, all from South America.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Araneomorphae
Family: Lycosidae
Subfamily: Sosippinae
Genus: Aglaoctenus Tullgren, 1905
Species: A. lagotis (Holmberg, 1876)
Binomial name: Aglaoctenus lagotis
Cute little fellow isn't he :) Even though Halloween isn't a big thing here in Australia, I thought this pic might be getting into the spirit of things (pun intended ;)
This is a Sydney Funnel Web, generally considered to be one of the top two most dangerous spiders in the world, along with the Brazilian Wandering Spider. We have had a several dozen in our yard over the years, in the garage (always check your shoes), in the house, even the bedroom, but mainly in the yard and pool. In the pool they look like they are dead, but they can hold a small bubble of oxygen with them which keeps them alive, so no picking up with hands assuming they are dead. This guy I saved from the pool, so he was a little worse for wear hence letting me a get a couple of shots off before he recovered. The Australian Reptile Park is quite near here collects them for milking. It is the sole supplier of funnel-web venom to make antivenom in all of Australia.
A headline from a news article here this year read - Deadly spiders that can kill in minutes and survive underwater are hiding out in swimming pools. Heavy rain in Australia has led to an influx in venomous spiders being washed into people's swimming pools. Species found include funnel-web spiders, the venom of which is so toxic it can kill a child in just 15 minutes.
As usual sensationalism beats facts. Bites are relatively rare, and fatalities are even rarer since an antivenom has been available. Poor misunderstood little critters.
Apologies to anyone suffering from arachnophobia!
While feeling industrious, a fine mist from my powerwasher blew on to a nearby funnel web. The spider only came out for two seconds so I just photographed the drops on the web.
There's an old saying, "when gorse is out of blossom, kissing's out of fashion". Yet again I am endeavouring to photograph Irish gorse in flower every month of the year & it seems finally this year will be my year! July & August are the tricky months usually, but I took this walking up Slieve Coillte with my son & friends on Monday.
We have 2 species of gorse in Ireland - Ulex europaeus (Common gorse) which flowers in hedgerows from late autumn through to late spring, generally tailing off in June, and Ulex gallii (Western or dwarf gorse) which typically flowers in late summer, alongside heather, on mountainsides as in this photo.
New members are very welcome to upload their gorse photos to Gorgeous Golden Gorse group.
Happy Webnesday! I suspect this is the funnel shaped web of a Labyrinth spider.
Fazenda Grotão - DF, Brazil.
Near the entrance of its funnel web. This photo is better to view in full size.
Aglaoctenus is a small genus. It contains only five species of spiders, all from South America.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Araneomorphae
Family: Lycosidae
Subfamily: Sosippinae
Genus: Aglaoctenus Tullgren, 1905
Species: A. lagotis (Holmberg, 1876)
Binomial name: Aglaoctenus lagotis
Classic web of the Australian Funnelweb Spider, except woven by humans at human size for small humans to play in. Spotted at the Brickworks Marketplace playground.
Saw several of these webs scattered along the salt-grass. This one measured about 5 inches by 16 inches, and was very coarse and strong. The funnel at the center was about an inch wide. Managed to coax one large female out but not long enough to get a shot. San Louis National Wildlife Refuge.
The Port Macquarie funnel-web spider is found along the northern coast of New South Wales in eastern Australia. Stepping into my garage, I came face to face with a male Funnel-Web Spider. Considered to be the most deadly species of spider in the world. You must seek medical help if bitten, a funnelweb spider bite can cause fatality in 15 minutes. The male will wander looking for a female, the female rarely leaves her nest. I released him in the bush next to the creek. Everything has a right to life. Unfortunately he dashed under a leaf before I could not get a full shot of him. They are incredibly fast.
There's a large colony of these close to home, but for some reason I'd never got round to pointing the camera at them until today.
Pictured here just outside the entrance to the funnel shaped part of its web, the caterpillar was subsequently dragged down into the funnel. Wokingham, UK.
Sometimes you accidentally cause a chain reaction in nature. My footsteps flushed this grasshopper into the snare of a funnel web weaver (family Agelenidae) in our Leavenworth, Kansas, USA back yard. July 6, 2021.
Here is a better view of the funnel web I found recently after the spider ran back in her hole. Perfect timing for our new Web Wednesday group.
The snares of funnel web weavers are not sticky, simply tangled, but charged with static electricity than enhances their prey-catching efficiency. Leavenworth, Kansas, USA, July 6, 2021.
Saw several of these webs scattered along the salt-grass. This one measured about 5 inches by 16 inches, and was very coarse and strong. The funnel at the center was about an inch wide. Managed to coax one large female out but not long enough to get a shot. San Louis National Wildlife Refuge.
Curiously, some academics don't consider tarantulas to be "true" spiders. It would perhaps be more accurate to call them "old" or "primitive" spiders as opposed to modern spiders.
Tarantulas (and a few other others like Trapdoor and Funnelweb spiders) are from an older genetic lineage than most spiders, having branched off in their own direction millions of years ago.
In practice the differences are minor - e.g. Tarantulas have downward-facing fangs rather than the opposing fangs of most (but not all!) "true" spiders.
Happy Sliders Sunday! Taken for Growing in the Gaps www.flickr.com/groups/gitg/ and New Wall Wednesday www.flickr.com/groups/new-wall-wednesday/ HWW!
trapdoor spider (Aptostichus sp) - Contra Costa County, California, USA
An interesting spider that was seen skittering across the trail one evening in the hills above Berkeley, CA. I immediately knew it was some sort of mygalomorph spider (the family that includes Tarantulas, funnelweb spiders, and trapdoor spiders), specifically I strongly suspected it was some sort of trap door spider. I looked into it and I'm now fairly certain its a species in the Aptostichus genus. A really cool group of spiders with quite a diversity of species most of which are rather range restricted. While I haven't specifically keyed this one out by characteristics or range, I suspect it is probably endemic to the general area. A nice surprise to find. I look forward to seeing this and its congeners again sometime soonish.
And in case you missed it, here is a link to an previously posted photo of beetle which I'm pretty sure was eating one of these spiders: www.flickr.com/photos/26500525@N08/49324514701/in/datepos...
A venomous funnel web spider made an unwelcome appearance the other day - first time I've had one inside the house. This one was about 35-40 mm long and very active. Its overall characteristics (size, colour, body pattern etc) and the presence of mating spurs on the second legs suggest it's a Sydney Funnel Web (Atrax robustus) but it's a fair way South of its usual range. The first image shows it just after capture; the second after its release in the yard.
Both frames taken with an Industar-61 LZ MC (Индустар-61Л/З) 50mm f2.8 Macro lens at f8.
Rain-soaked grass spider or wolf spider funnel web tunnel, on the lawn of Tunxis Community College in Farmington, CT. A closer view of the full web.
The silk is so fine that it's invisible and it looks like the droplets are levitating. Any prey will probably not see it in good weather, and the spider will jump out and grab it as soon as the web is disturbed. The silk also seems to create a screen effect that sharpens the edges in the photo and intensifies the contrasts.
Atrax robustus -Sydney Funnel Web Spider, 7 x shot handheld focus stack shot with 5Dsr and EF 50mm f 1.8 on macro tubes.
Funnel web weavers rush quickly to the location where they sense the impact of prey, and administer several quick bites to paralyze the victim. Leavenworth, Kansas, USA, July 6, 2021.
October 12, 2019
A funnel spider has ridden out the storm, deep within her dark home. Through the damp gloom I can only see one of her long legs and will keep watching the opening to see if one day (or night) she comes back out, poking through her "flooded" entrance, to survey the damages. Will she rebuild or move on?
(An Arachtober spider submission #12 - 2019)
Brewster, Massachusetts
Cape Cod - USA
Photo by brucetopher
© Bruce Christopher 2018
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I got a new kind of spider when I visited my daughter's place. They were the first critters I found when I started looking around. Under her roses and shrubs along the fence was a line of spider webs, each had a flat sheet with a funnel at the bottom. It was overcast & misty and the webs were covered with dew drops. When I looked closer, there were spiders at each funnel opening. So dark I had to use flash to bring out details of the spiders. Turned out they had beautiful colors, especially their legs. Did not know what they were at the time but my daughter got a shot of one out of the web later that identified them, at least to the genus level. There are 14 species of them.
American Grass Spider (Agelenopsis sp.)
My photos can also be found at kapturedbykala.com