Have you ever wondered…What is a black widow? Why are most people afraid of them? Well, to be completely honest, I don’t know. It’s rare for a person to encounter a black widow in my opinion. Some say they see them a lot, but that could be a Steatoda grossa, which is a spider that mimics the black widow, although there might be more spiders that mimic better than A Steatoda grossa spider, this spider is the only one I’ve encountered. So, If you’d like to know more facts about the black widow, please feel free to keep reading…maybe it’ll be a great experience for you
A black widow, unlike other spiders, does indeed try to eat their mate. On the other hand, the black widow is hardly ever able to do so due to the male spider’s ability to escape faster. Black widows earned their name because scientists witnessed the females eat their mates after the mating process. However, research has shown that in a related species, black widows only cannibalize their mates about two percent of the time. The black widow’s cannibalistic behavior was first observed in a lab. The male and female spiders were put in a jar where the male spider had nowhere to run after the mating process. But in spiders’ natural habitats, male spiders have more of an opportunity to escape.
Although most spiders are pretty venomous, they end up developing and learning how to kill over time. On the other hand, black widows were trained to kill from a young age. Research on this topic was published in 2016 in the journal Animal Behavior it showed that when black widow spiderlings hatch together at different sizes, the largest among them quickly consume their smallest siblings to survive.
Over 2,500 people go to poison control centers with black widow bites each year to shorten the symptoms with the help of antivenom. Antivenom isn’t always prescribed for everyday spider bites. Typically the antivenom is used if the patient is at high risk, has trouble breathing, has high blood pressure, or is pregnant. The antivenom for black widow bites was first manufactured in the 1930s. To make the antivenom, pharmaceutical producers expose horses to small amounts of black widow venom. The horse’s immune system reacts by creating antibodies that target chemicals in the venom.
A female black widow has a red hourglass on their abdomen, which protects them from dangerous animals trying to attack them. The way the redness of the hourglass helps is it sends a message, to not only humans but also animals, warning them that this spider may be dangerous to eat or be near. Throughout time as the black widows evolved, they needed to strike a balance between hiding from prey and warning predators off.
In conclusion, spiders may be more exciting than you think. In reality, spiders of all types have different interesting facts that many don’t know about. Through the story, I listed multiple different sites that give valid information about the topic. I hope you did find this interesting and you’d come back to learn more about spiders