More "REAL'' spiders

racketman wrote in post #4030566
Impressive beast - i'm assuming its about the size of your palm?

haha id love to say it was about a foot wide but it was probibly only 3 inches long

RockOne wrote in post #4029441
Yep.I've only ever seen one though and it was crawling through the grass.

Probably a male looking for a mate then. They're like funnelwebs, the female pretty much stays underground her entire life, unless her burrow gets waterlogged and she's forced out.

Dave

lance v wrote in post #4029415
cheers rockone. not as deadly as the mouse spider. thats the one that burrows into soil isnt it?

There's suspicions that the mouse spider is responsible for a lot of funnelweb bites, they're pretty much very closely related, and the neurotoxins from some species of mouse spiders are even more deadly than funnelwebs. And yes, they do burrow into the ground (both males and females), but they'll also go looking for food.

Dave

spidermanrbryce2006 wrote in post #4030331
the black tunnel web spider (porrhothele antipodiana) heaviest spider in New Zealand large enough to eat mouse! and is one of the only spiders in the world that eats snails and is related to the funnel web spiders of aus! one of my fav spiders!!!

Brilliant shots BTW

Agreed, brilliant shots Lance! I'd have said more than a few four letter words if that had landed on me

Bryce - thanks for the ID, I couldn't remember the name. I'm pretty sure that this is the same spider that Peter Jackson used to help develop Shelob for the Return of the King. I think this is the only primitive spider that NZ has from memory.

Toby - almost all primitive spiders are a good size, and they're very heavily built. They usually have quite a heavily armoured carapace to protect them from predators. Plus, down south, we feed them on cattle, to make them get even bigger

Dave

dpastern wrote in post #4031321
There's suspicions that the mouse spider is responsible for a lot of funnelweb bites, they're pretty much very closely related, and the neurotoxins from some species of mouse spiders are even more deadly than funnelwebs. And yes, they do burrow into the ground (both males and females), but they'll also go looking for food.

Dave

dpastern wrote in post #4031329
Agreed, brilliant shots Lance! I'd have said more than a few four letter words if that had landed on me

Bryce - thanks for the ID, I couldn't remember the name. I'm pretty sure that this is the same spider that Peter Jackson used to help develop Shelob for the Return of the King. I think this is the only primitive spider that NZ has from memory.

Toby - almost all primitive spiders are a good size, and they're very heavily built. They usually have quite a heavily armoured carapace to protect them from predators. Plus, down south, we feed them on cattle, to make them get even bigger

Dave

Cheers for the info dpastern, ya learn something new every day