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Latrodectus mactans, known as southern black widow or simply black widow, and the shoe-button spider, [citation needed] is a venomous species of spider in the genus Latrodectus. The females are well known for their distinctive black and red coloring and for the fact that they will occasionally eat their mates after reproduction.
The eye arrangement of spiders in the genus Latrodectus. Female widow spiders are typically dark brown or a shiny black in colour when they are full grown, usually exhibiting a red or orange hourglass on the ventral surface (underside) of the abdomen; some may have a pair of red spots or have no marking at all.
This supposed propensity is what gave the black widow spider, Latrodectus mactans, its name. However, the three species of North American black widows do not usually kill the male (although they have been known to do so). Males can sometimes even live in the web of a female for a period without being harmed in any way.
Latrodectus hesperus, the western black widow spider or western widow, is a venomous spider species found in western regions of North America. The female's body is 14–16 mm (1/2 in) in length and is black, often with an hourglass-shaped red mark on the lower abdomen. This "hourglass" mark can be red, yellow, and on rare occasions, white.
The prevalence of sexual cannibalism gives several species of Latrodectus the common name "black widow spider". Sexual cannibalism is when an animal, usually the female, cannibalizes its mate prior to, during, or after copulation. [1] This trait is observed in many arachnid orders, several insect and crustacean clades, [2] gastropods, and some ...
The redback spider (Latrodectus hasselti), also known as the Australian black widow, [2] [3] [4] is a species of highly venomous spider believed to originate in Australia but now, Southeast Asia and New Zealand, it has also been found in packing crates in the United States with colonies elsewhere outside Australia. [5]
Button spider is a common name used in Southern Africa to refer to local members of the spider genus, Latrodectus, the family Theridiidae.There are both black and brown button spiders in Southern Africa, that are known elsewhere as widow spiders.
Latrodectus indistinctus is a species of spider in the family Theridiidae, found in Namibia and South Africa. [1] It is one of six species of Latrodectus found in southern Africa, four of which, including L. indistinctus, are known as black button or black widow spiders.