A larger, more venomous, longer-fanged species of one of the world’s deadliest spiders has been discovered by scientists in Australia.

Nicknamed “Big Boy” and living just 100 miles north of Sydney, the Newcastle funnel-web has thrilled arachnologists – and struck fear into arachnophobes.

By arachnid standards, it is a whopper. While a normal male has a 2.5cm body length, the Newcastle variation, named after the port city where it was found, is more than 9cm long.

Last week, a record-breaking Newcastle funnel-web spider was caught in the wild and presented to the Australian Reptile Park near Sydney.

It was named Hemsworth after Chris Hemsworth, the Australian actor best known for playing Thor in the Marvel series of superhero films.

“The sheer size of the males, compared to the males of the other Atrax species is simply astounding,” said Kane Christensen, a spider expert who first noticed the large proportions of the arachnid.