Australia is an old, isolated continent and being an island has marooned many creatures past their use by date. For instance, the dreaded funnel web spider is really a very early model and should have gone to the wreckers ages ago. A Funnel Web Spider’s lungs are like the pages of a book and are known as book leaf lungs. The edges of these under slung lungs must be kept moist so they don’t dry out and give respiratory problems.
This is why North Shore Sydneysiders find Funnel Webs in the bathroom, toilet, laundry, under floors and in rockeries. The spiders love these cool damp areas as they mirror their ancient rain forest homeland. Funnel web spiders have been found at Yarrambat but they are not as nasty as their Sydney cousins.
The top of the range models like red backs, huntsmen and Black House spiders use the latest lung technology. This consists of a series of small side port holes that use dry air making them adaptable to Australia’s ongoing drying climate. All spiders have a major dental problem. They have no teeth. They have no mouth. Just a simple pin hole. Their muscles generate a vacuum that draws all liquids from their kills. Overnight a spider can change a one inch red steak cube to a white one inch cube. Nobody has ever been bitten by a spider. Their fangs are not teeth, merely flexible equivalents of a cow’s horns. Early models like the funnel web have vertical fangs. To attack they must rear up and strike, their descending body weight adding strike power.
But this also means a faster adversary can dart in to strike their underbody. The redesigned, later models have horizontal fangs that strike with the mobility of all legs on the ground.
Before you squash that next Huntsman running across your floor, remember, they are loving mothers and bear up to 300 babies each pregnancy. The cute spiderlings are carried on Mum’s body until they leave home.
Next time you see Red Backs in your garage, remember, you have the sleek, black, deluxe, top of the range BMW of Spiderland, and there are plenty of them zooming around our area.
350 million years after the first models were unveiled – they are still out there! Who knows what refinements the next millennium’s models will present.
Kevin (2009)
