Quote:
Originally Posted by HugeWood
I call bullshit on spiders living 40 - 50 years.
|
Males take four to six years to reach sexual maturity and most males of the species die around 6 months to a year after that.
The more domestic Sydney funnel webs are regularly recorded at 6 - 8 years around humans.
Sydney Funnel-web Spider - Atrax robustus - Australian Reptile Park
Females, the nasty ones, have been recorded at 30 - 35 years in the wild. The one noted in the article is said to be around 25 - 30 years old.
Dr Struan Sutherland of Melbourne Zoo told Douglas Adams in an interview he did for "Last Chance to See" that he had studied female funnel webs as old as 40 years and suggested they could live longer in the wild.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Chance_to_See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struan_Sutherland