A. robustus??? Sydney Funnel Web

[Moltar]

Phoneutria and latrodectus (especially latro's) are much more widespread than the Aussie/Sydney funnel webs. They have a distribution that covers a small part of one continent whereas phoeneutria are all over south america and Latrodectus are lirterally all over the world (including AUS).

There's probably just one or two hospitals that handle all A robustus bites. Add that to the small number of envenomations (due to the small distribution) and it's no wonder there are few-to-no fatalities. Before they had antivenom there were far more fatalities i'm sure.

 

[Equinox]

So, nothing like a reply 11 years in the making. But came across this thread and some of the information is not correct. Just incase anyone uses it for reference.

the intravenous LD50 of Atrax robustus in adult mice is approx:
Male: 6.0 mg/kg
Female: 17.5 mg/kg

subcutaneous:
Male: 8.5mg/kg
Female: 65.0 mg/kg


The figure 0.16 mg/kg is a misunderstood piece of data which was done on the study of pure isolated Robustoxin, not the crude/whole venom of the spider. This figure was the result of a subcutaneous injection on a newborn mouse (less than 2 days old) of this isolated component only. The venom as a whole had an LD50 on the same baby mice of 1.5mg/kg. Quite a large difference.

As previously stated, male A robustus does have a very low LD50 in primates. A result of 0.2mg/kg was achieved when tested on Macaques.