Australian scientists officially confirmed the existence of a new venomous funnel-web spider species, named Big Boy (Atrax christenseni), discovered near Newcastle, 170 kilometers north of Sydney.

The Sydney funnel-web spider has extremely dangerous venom, but according to a new study this spider is actually three different species — one of which, the "Newcastle big boy," is much larger.

Also dubbed “Big Boy,” the Newcastle funnel-web is new to science and is named after Kane Christensen, a former employee at the Australian Reptile Park who brought the spiders to the ...

The 'classic' Sydney funnel-web spider on the (left) and newly-identified Newcastle funnel-web variant 'Big Boy'. Picture: Kane Christensen In early January the Park received a spider named ...

The spider Hemsworth was handed in at one of the park’s drop-off locations in Newcastle, a coastal city around 75 miles north of Sydney. Park staff first thought it was a female spider due to ...

Scientists in Australia say a group of “unusually large” funnel-web spiders is actually a new species in its own right. Researchers say they used anatomical and DNA comparisons to study ...

He also realised the biggest funnel-webs all came from Newcastle. Related: Meet ‘Big Boy’ the funnel-web spider Kane’s hunch that there was more than one species of funnel-web was shared by the late ...