One of these following facts about the Black Widow should probably give you much information about this dangerous spider. The Black Widow, or also known as the Latrodectus, is a genus of spider in the family Thridiidae. The genus contains 32 recognized species distributed worldwide, including the North American black widows, the button spiders of Africa, and the Australian redback. Individual species vary widely in size, but in most cases the females are dark-colored and readily identifiable by reddish hourglass-shaped markings on the abdomen. Furthermore, to get to know more about this spider, here are some facts about the Black Widow you might be interested in.
Facts about the Black Widow 1: Venomous Bite
The venomous bite of these spiders is considered particularly dangerous because of the neurotoxin latrotoxin, which causes the condition latrodectism, both named for the genus.
Facts about the Black Widow 2: Female Black Widow
The female black widow has unusually large venom glands and her bite is particularly harmful to humans; however, Latrodectus bites rarely kill if proper medical treatment is provided.
Facts about the Black Widow – Black Widow
Facts about the Black Widow 3: Research
Research at the University of Hamburg in Germany suggests this ultimate sacrifice strategy has evolved to promote the survival odds of the offspring; however females of some species only rarely show this behavior, and much of the documented evidence for mate cannibalism has been observed in laboratory cages where the males could not escape
Facts about the Black Widow 4: Tensile Strength
The ultimate tensile strength and other physical properties of Latrodecturs hesperus (western black widow) silk were found to be similar to the properties of silk from orb-weaving spiders that had been tested in other studies. The tensile strength for the three kinds of silk measured in the Blackledge study was about 1000 MPa.
Facts about the Black Widow – Details
Facts about the Black Widow 5: Hourglass Figure
The southern black widow, as well as the closely related western and northern species which were previously considered the same species, has a prominent red hourglass figure on the underside of its abdomen.
Facts about the Black Widow 6: Species
Widow spiders can be found on every continent of the world except Antarctica. In North America, the black widows commonly known as southern, western, and northern black widow spiders can be found in the United States, as can the “gray” or “brown widow spiders” and the “red widow spiders”.
Facts about the Black Widow – Female
Facts about the Black Widow 7: Worldwide Spider
Latrodectus geometricus, the brown widow, grey widow, or brown button spider is found in Africa, USA, South America, and Australia. It is unclear where this spider originated; however, it has been discovered in many warm, cosmopolitan locales. Similar to the Black Widow, the following facts about the Black Mamba are somewhat dangerous.
Facts about the Black Widow 8: Bites
Due to the presence of latrotoxin in their venom, black widow bites are potentially dangerous and may result in systemic effects including severe muscle pain, abdominal cramps, hyperhidrosis, tachycardia, and muscle spasms.
Facts about the Black Widow – Hourglass marking
Facts about the Black Widow 9: Symptoms
Symptoms usually last for 3–7 days, but may persist for several weeks.Contrary to popular belief, most people who are bitten suffer no serious damage, let alone death. But bites can be fatal, usually to small children, the elderly, or the infirm.
Facts about the Black Widow 10: Pain Medications
Pain medications may be used. Antivenom in one trial did not appear to be very useful.
Facts about the Black Widow – With eggsac silk
Hope you would find those Black Widow facts really interesting, useful and helpful for your additional reading.
