Iconic funnel-web spiders are not impacted by fire

Funnel-web spiders, notorious for their deadly bite, were not impacted by the Black Summer Fire, or by forest fragmentation. We collected spiders in pitfall traps in November, 2020, the first spring after the January-February 2020 fire. Honor’s student Wyatt Metelman-Alvis added the spring 2020 data to a previous data set collected by Honor’s student, Rachel Rigden, which stretched from 2009-2015. Funnel-web spiders, Atrax sutherlandi, were more abundant in forest fragments than continuous forest before the fire. After the fire the spider was equally abundant in forest fragments and continuous forest.

Why is the spider species so unfazed by disturbance? For one thing, the species is a generalist predator, so it does not rely on the presence of particular prey species. But critically, the spiders forms burrows in the ground where it builds webs to trap prey. The burrows likely are a great adaption for weathering fire. Like seeds, the spiders have a way to store themselves in the landscape and wait for better conditions in the future.

Atrax sutherlandi, the species found at Wog Wog, is not the same species as the Sydney Funnel-web and it is not as well known to science. Fore example, we do not know whether it is as venomous, and it may be more, or less, venomous.