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• A small historical note: I have been trying to track news reports of early spider bite deaths in the National Library's TROVE newspaper collection, and most accounts seem to start in the 1930s. I pushed the record back by searching on Latrodectus, which made me realise that the redback used to be a "red-striped spider". Mr Rainbow of the Australian Museum was writing on the issue as early as 1907. I am yet to find the name that must previously have been given to funnelwebs. Annoyingly, there was a horse called Atrax in the 1920s!