A ustralian scientists officially confirmed the existence of a new venomous funnel-web spider species, named Big Boy (Atrax christenseni), discovered near Newcastle, 170 kilometer

By Shreya Dasgupta The Sydney funnel-web spider, a highly venomous arachnid found crawling in and around Australia’s most populous city, was long thought to be a single species. But it’s actually three different species,

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.

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.

An international team of scientists has revised the classification of Australia's most famous spider. With a bite more deadly to humans than that of any other spider, the iconic Sydney funnel-web has long been considered a single species,

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

Scientists in Australia have discovered a larger, more venomous species of one of the world's deadliest spiders, the Sydney funnel-web spider.

Not everybody would be thrilled about having a newly discovered, plus-size species of deadly spider named after them—but not everybody is as big a fan of Sydney funnel-web spiders as Kane Christensen.