[Lee Stewart]

The male funnel-web is the world’s most venomous spider with a bite capable of killing an adult human within half an hour. They can be found (by the unlucky) in eastern and southern Australia and Tasmania, usually lurking in corners and sometimes even shoes, with a tendency to build their webs in sheltered burrows to create the funnel shape that gives them their name. Up to 40 people are bitten each year but there have only been 13 recorded deaths, and none since an anti-venom was released in 1981.