A Review of the Relationships of Australian Funnel-Web Spiders with a New Species of Funnel-Web Spider from Far North-Eastern Tasmania (Hexathelidae: Atracinae: Araneae)

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A Review of the Relationships of Australian Funnel-Web Spiders with a New Species of Funnel-Web Spider from Far North-Eastern Tasmania (Hexathelidae: Atracinae: Araneae)

Abstract

A new species of funnel-web spider, Hadronyche simonfearni, is described from far north-eastern Tasmania. The family status is reviewed. Shortcomings including misidentifications and absence of supporting procedures in molecular analyses placing Atracidae as sister group to the Actinopodidae are identified and solutions proposed. The use of unanalysed venom data of the Atracidae in proposing relationship is rejected. The diagnoses of Macrothelidae and Porrhothelidae, as well as that of the Atracidae are rejected as non-diagnostic. They are the closest relatives to each other, as shown by repeated morphological analyses, with further doubt being cast upon limited molecular analyses through misidentifications. The Atracinae are replaced in the Hexathelidae and the Macrothelidae and Porrhothelidae placed in the Macrothelinae, also in the Hexathelidae. New genera and a subgenus proposed by Hoser (2017) are rejected.

Raven, R. J. & Douglas, J. C. (2025). A review of the relationships of Australian funnel-web spiders with a new species of funnel-web spider from far north-eastern Tasmania (Hexathelidae: Atracinae: Araneae). Record of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery 122: 1-16.