Octavius Pickard-Cambridge was the first to describe the Sydney funnel-web spider, from a female specimen housed in the British Museum in 1877.

[5] Some years later, William Joseph Rainbow described a male Sydney funnel-web as a new species—Euctimena tibialis—from a spider he found under a log in Turramurra, and another from Mosman.

He coined the scientific name from Ancient Greek euktimenos, "well-built", and Latin tibialis, "of the tibia", having noted its prominent tibial spur.

In the same paper, he described a female Sydney funnel-web spider as yet another species—Poikilomorpha montana—from a specimen collected from Jamison Valley and Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains.

[6] In February 1927, a young boy died after being bitten on the hand after playing with a big black spider on the laundry steps of his home in the Sydney suburb of Thornleigh.

[14] They typically build silk-lined tubular burrow retreats with collapsed "tunnels" or open "funnel" entrances from which irregular trip-lines radiate over the ground.

The spiders burrow in sheltered habitats where they can find a moist and humid climate; for instance under rocks, logs or borer holes in rough-barked trees.

[11][14] Males, recognised by the modified terminal segment of the palp, tend to wander during the warmer months of the year, looking for receptive females to mate with.

The lethal dose of venom from male Sydney funnel-web spiders for the crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis) is 0.2 mg/kg.

The average venom yield for a male is 0.81 mg.[17] In doses of the order of 5 mg/kg administered intravenously, Delta atracotoxin the active compound in the venom, kills monkeys in 3–4 hours; the symptoms seen in monkeys were dyspnea, blood pressure fluctuations, culminating in severe hypotension, lacrimation, salivation, skeletal muscle fasciculation and death.

[11] The Sydney funnel-web spider typically delivers a full envenomation when it bites, often striking repeatedly, due to the defensiveness of the species and the presence of large cheliceral fangs.

[20] The bite of a Sydney funnel-web is initially very painful, with clear fang marks separated by several millimetres.

[23] Physical symptoms can include intense nausea, vomiting, copious secretion of saliva, muscular twitching and breathing difficulty, disorientation and confusion, leading to unconsciousness.

[11][19] In September 2012, it was reported that stocks of antivenom were running low, and members of the public were asked to catch the spiders so that they could be milked for their venom.