Brazilian wandering spiders (Phoneutria--confirmed deaths)

Main article: Brazilian wandering spider

The Brazilian wandering spider (a ctenid spider) is a large, brown spider rather like a North American Wolf spider in appearance. However, it has a highly toxic venom (one of the most neurologically active), and is regarded (along with the Australian venomous funnel-web spiders below) as among the most dangerous spiders in the world. It, like several other more harmless spiders, may hitch a ride in clusters of bananas. As a result, any large spider appearing in a bunch of bananas should be treated with due care. Oddly, many of the bites of this species are alleged to be dry bites (in which no venom is released), but because on the margin of error when identifying the precise subspecies involved (assuming the spider body is saved or captured), this claim is not definitive. In either case, the bite is at minimum mechanically painful due to the large size of the chelicerae (fangs) and considering the high levels of serotonin contained in the venom, the bite can be one of the most excruciating of all spider envenomations. The spiders are as large as some small tarantulas and, as already mentioned, have fairly long fangs. While venom from either spider can be deadly to children and the infirm, since the development of antivenom to the venoms of both were developed (the funnel web spider in the mid-1980's and the wandering spider in 1996), no human deaths from their bites have been recorded. Nevertheless, any large spider which makes a threat display (raising front legs, rearing back to display fangs) when encountered should be treated with caution - especially in areas where these two types of spiders may be present.

[edit] Australian venomous funnel-web spiders (Atrax, Hadronyche--confirmed deaths)

The Australian venomous funnel-web spiders, such as the Sydney funnel-web spider (a mygalomorph only distantly related to the araneomorph funnel-web spiders) frequently bite people and are regarded as among the most dangerous in the world. They are quite aggressive spiders, and are prone to biting when confronted, rather than running away. The Sydney funnel-web spider, a large, bulky, black spider, is restricted to a relatively small area around Sydney, Australia. Its venom contains a compound known as robustotoxin which is highly toxic to primates. Unlike the Brazilian wandering spider, which is alleged to occasionally deliver dry bites, these spiders typically deliver a full envenomation when they bite.
Range of the two genera (Hadronyche and Atrax) of venomous Australian funnel-web spiders
Range of the two genera (Hadronyche and Atrax) of venomous Australian funnel-web spiders

There are other dangerous species of Atrax and Hadronyche related to this spider in surrounding parts of Australia, including Tasmania. The males in this case have somewhat more potent venom than females and they also wander, making them more likely to be encountered in summer.

One other genus in the Hexathelidae family has been reported to cause severe symptoms in humans. The genus Macrothele in Taiwan has been attributed to severe bites, but no fatalities.[24] There are no known deaths attributed in the literature to any funnel-web species other than A. robustus