Black Widow Spider

I always used to be curious about Black Widow Spiders. Like most of us I also heard the stories of how someone can die if they bite and how female spider kills her male counterpart after mating, so I thought of doing some research and writing a post about them. Here we go.

Black widow spiders are popularly known for their venomous bites and female spiders killing and then eating their mate after mating. This gruesome and horrifying act has given them their name. They are also considered the most venomous species of spiders mainly in North American region. They are majorly found in warm and temperate conditions around the globe.

They usually eat insects after trapping them in their web like any other species of spiders. They have a lifespan anywhere between one to three years. They are also known as Redback spider and Katipo in Australia and New Zealand respectively. Females are capable of lying as much as seven hundred and fifty eggs and they hatch in the time span of two to four weeks. Though baby spiders are not venomous but they do eat each other.

They are very easy to recognize with their glowing black body and depending on the species different kind of red marks on the top. Female black widow is relatively easy to recognize as they have red hourglass shape beneath their abdomen.

There are couple of facts about them and many people might not be aware of it.

1) Bites are rarely fatal – Their bites are not capable of causing any serious damage. People who are bitten by them often admitted suffering from muscle pain and nausea. There are some exceptions, as bites to infants, small kids and physically weak people who have less resistance can be fatal. Black widow spider is not aggressive in behavior, likes to stay away from people and bites usually in self-defense.

2) Mating and then killing is not a hard and fast rule – It is not necessary that every time a female would kill her counterpart after mating.

Sometimes a female black widow does kill male black widow after mating, scientist have different opinions about it. Some believe because there are very less chances for a male to find another female mate, as females remain alone and mate only once in year, so his life doesn’t serve the purpose of evolution, female black widow understand this and eat him as this would increase nutrition for female which would help in increasing egg production.

Others believe it happens only when the female black widow is really hungry and she doesn’t want to miss out potential food source as all nutrition directly goes in the female body.

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