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Mooney Goes Wild contributor Terry Flanagan shares his latest round up of nature news.
Although we are losing species at an unprecedented rate every year, it's nice to know that new species are also being discovered too.
Most of these new species are microbes, the likes of fungi and bacteria, but larger vertebrates and invertebrates are also being discovered.
Recently a new species of spider was discovered in Australia. This new funnel webbed species is nicknamed 'Big Boy' because of its size, and was discovered by Kane Christensen - a spider enthusiast and former head of spiders at the Australian Reptile Park.
Although 'Big Boy' was discovered a number of years ago, Australian scientists have now classified it as a bigger species of the Sydney funnel web spider, one of the world's deadliest.
"This particular spider is a lot larger, its venom glands are a lot larger and its fangs are a lot longer," he said. Scientists from the Australian Museum, Flinders University and Germany's Leibniz Institute said "Big Boy" would be classified as a separate species of funnel web spiders.
A new spider species has been found in Australia.
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) January 16, 2025
The newly discovered spider species, Atrax christenseni, measures about 9 cm—nearly double the size of the common Sydney funnel-web (5 cm)
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They have named the 9cm long species as Atrax Christenseni, after Mr Christensen's contributions to the research. The more common Sydney funnel-webs can grow up to 5cm. The nocturnal black arachnids are usually spotted within around 150km of Sydney, Australia's largest city, and is mostly active between November and April.
Only the male Sydney funnel-web is responsible for human deaths. A total of 13 deaths have been recorded, though no human fatalities have occurred since the development of antivenom in the 1980s, according to the Australian Museum.
"Sometimes you might find them in a garage or in a bedroom or somewhere in the house where they might have wandered in during the night," Mr Christensen said of the new species, adding that they contain copious amounts of venom.
"I would not recommend touching them that's for sure", he said.
