Southern Black Widow Latrodectus Mactans

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southern black widow Latrodectus mactans Kingdom: Animalia Division/Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Chelicerata Order: Araneae Family: Theridiidae ILLINOIS STATUS common, native FEATURES The female southern black widow has a shiny, black body with red spots on the top side of the rounded abdomen. Usually there is a red, hourglass-shaped mark on the belly side of the abdomen. The male’s abdomen is ﬂatter than that of the female and has red and white spots. The male is much smaller than the female. The female’s body length is slightly under one-half inch while that of the male is about one-fourth inch. BEHAVIORS The southern black widow builds its web near the ground in secluded places or indoors in sheds and barns throughout Illinois. The web is an irregular network of threads with a funnel area for retreating from danger or bad weather. Insects trapped in the web are eaten as food. Mating occurs in May. After mating, the female sometimes kills and eats the male. If she doesn’t eat him, he dies soon anyway. The female produces a series of egg sacks, each with a nipplelike projection at the top. The female may live for about three years. The venom of the female is very toxic to humans, but humans are rarely bitten because this spider is shy and not aggressive. The venom is a neurotoxin that causes nerve cell functions to be blocked and nerve cells to be destroyed. Symptoms of a black widow bite include sharp pain starting at the bite location and spreading over the body within one-half hour, cramps, muscle spasms, muscle rigidity, sweating, dizziness, nausea and vomiting. An antivenin is available. Most bite victims recover fully. HABITATS Aquatic Habitats bottomland forests Woodland Habitats bottomland forests; coniferous forests; southern Illinois lowlands; upland deciduous forests Prairie and Edge Habitats none © Illinois Department of Natural Resources. 2017. Biodiversity of Illinois. .

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False Black Widows and Other Household Spiders
False Black Widows and Other Household Spiders Spiders can quite unnecessarily evoke all kinds of dread and fear. The Press does not help by publishing inaccurate and often alarmist stories about them. Spiders are in fact one of our very important beneficial creatures. Spiders in the UK devour a weight of insect 'pests' equivalent to that of the nation's human population! During the mid-late summer, many spiders mature and as a result become more obvious as they have then grown to their full size. One of these species is Steatoda nobilis. It came from the Canary and Madeiran Islands into Devon over a 100 years ago, being first recorded in Britain near Torquay in 1879! However it was not described from Britain until 1993, when it was known to have occurred since at least 1986 and 1989 as flourishing populations in Portsmouth (Hampshire) and Swanage (Dorset). There was also a population in Westcliff-on-Sea (Essex) recorded in 1990, and another in Littlehampton and Worthing (West Sussex). Its distribution is spreading more widely along the coast in the south and also inland, with confirmed records from South Devon, East Sussex, Kent, Surrey and Warwick. The large, grape-like individuals are the females and the smaller, more elongate ones, the males. These spiders are have become known as False Widows and, because of their colour, shape and size, are frequently mistaken for the Black Widow Spider that are found in warmer climes, but not in Britain (although some occasionally come into the country in packaged fruit and flowers). Black Widow Spiders belong to the world-wide genus Latrodectus.
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