Nature Atlas

How Nature Works
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Species

Latrodectus mactans

Arachnids

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Latrodectus mactans, commonly known as the southern black widow or simply the black widow, and also called the shoe-button spider, is a venomous species of spider in the genus Latrodectus native to North America. Females are recognized by their distinctive black and red coloring and are known to occasionally eat their mates after reproduction. Its venom can cause pain and other symptoms in humans but is rarely fatal to healthy adults.

Sources
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.