No wonder they’re called widow spiders. To get sex with an older female, a male might fight off many rivals or perform courtship gestures for up to six hours. At the magical moment, he’d place ...
Fortunately, fatalities are fairly rare; the spiders are nonaggressive and bite only in self-defense, such as when someone accidentally sits on them. The animals most at risk from the black widow' ...
In the past couple decades, researchers have noticed black widow spiders (adult female shown at right) commonly being displaced by the brown widow (adult female at left), a fellow species in the ...
There are six species of false widow spiders that live in the UK (Steatoda nobilis, Steatoda grossa, Steatoda bipunctata, Steatoda albomaculata, Steatoda triangulosa and Asagena phalerata). They are ...
Every autumn there are reports of false widow spiders becoming uninvited eight-legged houseguests in homes across the UK. But despite looking similar to the more dangerous black widows, all these ...
Beyond their markings, the overall appearance of male and female black widow spiders differs greatly. Unlike the sleek, black colour of females, male black widows are typically brown or grey.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classifies the black widow spider as one of the most venomous spiders in North America, along with spiders like brown recluses. While black ...