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.

“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.

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A larger, more venomous, longer-fanged species of one of the world’s deadliest spiders has been discovered by scientists in Australia...

Scientists in Australia have discovered a ‘giant’ species of Sydney funnel-web spider, one of the world’s deadliest. Nicknamed ‘Big Boy’, the species was originally found by Kane Christensen, a spider enthusiast and ex-head of spiders at the Australian Reptile Park. in the early 2000s near Newcastle, 170 km north of Sydney.

Dr Helen Smith, an arachnologist (spider biologist) at the Australian Museum and one of the authors of the study suggested naming the newly identified species from Newcastle after Christensen’s hard-work to get the sub-species acknowledged by the scientific community for nearly twenty years.

The deadly 3.54-inch-long spider Atrax christenseni is among the most dangerously venomous spiders for humans.

Australian scientists have discovered a bigger, more venomous species of the Sydney funnel-web spider, one of the world's deadliest. The new funnel-web species has earned the nickname "Big Boy" and was first discovered in the early 2000s near Newcastle,

A new bigger and more dangerous version of the world's deadliest spider, the funnel web, has been identified in the land down under – and it even has longer fangs and more venom