G'day Seed,

The White-tailed Spider is a mediun size; about 25mm/1" in the body and fairly narrow. It is aggressive, tending to rear up and wave its fangs at you, as does the Funnel Web Spider (which, BTW, is not "small and innocuous looking" as suggested in the initial post - it is a close relative of the South American Tarantulas and is large, black and rather hairy where it isn't shiny).

Anyway, does the White-tailed Spider sound anything like the Brown Recluse? I have a few photographs on file, as I had to photograph one found at the labs of Testing and Certification Australia when ran its photo lab. They wanted to kill it first, but I wanted it alive to show its characteristic aggressive stance. I kept it in the refrigerator as I set up the studio lights and camera, then photographed it as it warmed up and strutted its stuff.

A further drift: I had an email from "Liam's Brother" a while back after I mentioned a brush with an Australian Copperhead snake. He had been surprised when I suggested it was more dangerous than any American namesake. Later his email mentioned seeing a TV program that stated that "of the world's ten deadliest snake species ... ten of them live in Australia"!

I have never counted ... but I don't wander about the bush in shorts and sandals.

Regards,

Bob Bolton