#4429 · 🕷️ spiders & kin

Southern Black Widow

🇳🇱 Amerikaanse Zwarte Weduwe ·Latrodectus mactans

7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

what is it?

Latrodectus mactans , known as southern black widow or simply black widow , and the shoe-button spider , is a highly venomous species of spider in the genus Latrodectus . The females are well known for their distinctive black and red coloring and for the fact that they will occasionally eat their mate after reproduction. The species is native to North America. The venom is seldom fatal to healthy humans.

base stats

NL sightings 0iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 15,317iNaturalist observations

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
15,317 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1775 (251 years ago).