Yahoo News 7 Jan 09;
SYDNEY (AFP) – One of the world's most venomous spiders, Australia's funnel-web, is enjoying the summer so much it appears to have brought forward its annual mating ritual, according to an expert.
Joel Shakespeare, head spider keeper at the Australian Reptile Park north of Sydney, said the number of funnel-webs found around Sydney was unusually high for this time of year, with about 50 specimens brought to him in the past week.
"Generally we have an average of about 10 a week," he told AFP.
"But we're having that wet, humid weather which is bringing them out to mate. So it's really a spike with the funnel webs."
Funnel-webs -- large, dark spiders which can grow up to five centimetres in length -- are found in most parts of Australia and have been known to cause death to humans within 76 minutes of biting.
Shakespeare, who milks funnel-webs to provide venom to produce anti-venom, said a two-year-old boy was bitten by one of the deadly spiders in November but survived after being taken to hospital and given the antidote.
Australia is enduring a southern hemisphere summer heatwave which has sparked bushfires in New South Wales state and seen temperatures top 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) in Sydney.
The hot weather has also reportedly seen hospitals report a sharp increase in the numbers of spider and snake bites.
"It's normally young children and middle-aged men that are bitten," Naren Gunja, deputy medical director and toxicologist at the New South Wales Poison Information Centre told The Australian newspaper.
"Children don't understand how dangerous snakes can be, while often alcohol is involved with older males who are bitten."
The good news is that the hotter the summer becomes, the less likely funnel-webs are to be seen because they cannot survive long in direct sunlight.
"They can die in 10 minutes in the sun," Shakespeare said, although he added the deadly arachnids could still be found inside homes, shoes and other sheltered areas as they attempt to escape the heat.
Funnel-webs have not claimed a life in Australia since 1982, the year that the anti-venom was developed.
