Sunday 13 April 2014

Black Widow Spider / Latrodectus hesperus

Black Widow Spider
 

The black widow spider is highly venomous, they have a 15 times stronger bite than a rattle snake, they are also carnivorous, and live to 1-3 years, Black widow spiders are one of the most venomous spiders in north america.

Black widows are notorious spiders identified by the coloured, hourglass-shaped mark on their abdomens. Several species answer to the name, and they are found in temperate regions around the world. The animals most at risk from the black widow's bite are insects—and male black widow spiders. Females sometimes kill and eat their counterparts after mating in a macabre behaviour that gave the insect its name. 

These spiders spin large webs in which females suspend a cocoon with hundreds of eggs. Spider-lings disperse soon after they leave their eggs, but the web remains. Black widow spiders also use their webs to ensnare their prey, which consists of flies, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, beetles, and caterpillars. Black widows are comb-footed spiders, which means they have bristles on their hind legs that they use to cover their prey with silk once it has been trapped.
Photo: Female black widow spider on a leaf
To feed, black widows puncture their insect prey with their fangs and administer digestive enzymes to the corpses. By using these enzymes, and their gnashing fangs, the spiders liquefy their prey's bodies and suck up the resulting fluid.

They are this size compared to a paper clip:
Illustration: Black widow compared with paper clip



(I really hate spiders !)


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