#Black Widows

[prinnay]

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[uncharismatic-fauna]

No Tears for the Southern Black Widow

Latrodectus mactans, more commonly known as the southern black widow, is the most common species in the black widow family. While it can be found throughout North America, they are found most often in the southern United States. Within this wide range, L. mactans enjoys a variety of habitats. They prefer areas that are close to the ground, dark, and sheltered; in the wild this may mean dense brush or under logs, while in inhabited areas they may be found in basements, log piles, or under trash lids.

In addition to being the most common black widow, L. mactans is also the largest member of the family Theridiidae. The females are larger than the males, averaging at about 8-10 mm (0.31- 0.39 in) in length and weighing about 1 g (0.04 oz); however the male's legs are generally longer than the females. Both males and females are black, with small thoraxes and extremely large, round abdomens. The female can be distinguished by the iconic red hour-glass shape on the underside of her abdomen, while the male has 4 pairs of red and white stripes on each side of his abdomen.

The southern black widow is mainly solitary, spending most of its time in or near its web. Only the females live long enough to build a web for catching prey, and are the sole source of black widow bites. While bites do require medical attention, no human fatalities have been reported since 1983.

During the day, females hang in the center of the web to expose the bright red warning on their abdomen; when startled they drop to the ground and play dead. Though the webs they construct are haphazard-- the stereotype of cobwebs-- they are extremely strong and are capable of catching woodlice, millipedes, centipedes, other spiders, and occasionally small mice. Once an animal becomes trapped in L. mactan's web, the spider envenoms its prey and wraps it in a thick cocoon. After the animal dies the spider injects it with digestive enzymes and consumes the resulting fluid. Despite their strong venom, the southern black widow can be victim to several predaotrs; namely wasps, the brown widow spider, praying mantises, and large centipedes.

The southern black widow mates primarily in the spring and summer. Mature males build small webs and deposit semen along the threads. He then coats his mouthpieces-- palps-- with sperm and sets out to find a female mate. To court her, he vibrates the threads of her web until she is receptive. On rare occasions, a displeased female may eat the male. Afterwards, if he survives, the male leaves the females web and dies soon afterwards. From just one encounter, the female can store enough sperm to last her a lifetime of reproductive cycles.

After fertilization, the female builds a small web where she lays her egg sac, which can contain up to 400 eggs. She guards these eggs until they hatch about 20 days later, and immedietly disperse to establish their own territories. Until they become fully mature, at about 90 days old, juveniles have no venom and are extremely vulnerable to predators- including adult black widows. Typically only about 30 individuals from a single clutch survive to adulthood. Once mature, males can live for only one year, while females can live up to three years in the wild.

Conservation status: The IUCN has not evaluated the southern black widow, but due to its large range and population size it is considered stable. It is able to adapt to most habitats, and thus the species' only threat comes from extermination via pest control.

If you send me proof that you’ve made a donation to UNRWA or another organization benefiting Palestinians, I’ll make art of any animal of your choosing.

Photos

Mark Kostich

James L. Castner

Meghan F. Murphy

[theflyingcircus384]

[dyingroses]

So do the Black Widows take estrogen supplements (since they all had oophorectomies, removal of the ovaries, and that's the primary producer of estrogen in the female body) and like how does that work because even tho there are forms of supplemental estrogen delivery that have longer durations (3-4 weeks) if you are on missions having to be on chronic scheduled medication could cause difficulties.

And estrogen does so much!

aesthetic:

keep skin smooth and

prevent excess body hair

keep breasts from sagging

sexual:

keep vagina lubricated

cognitive and emotional side effects of estrogen depletion

trouble concentrating

fatigue

anxiety

depression

cardiovascular/hematological side effects of estrogen depletion

increased risk of cardiovascular disease due to abnormal cholesterol levels

increased risk of bleeding because estrogen is an coagulant

muscoloskeletal side effects of estrogen depletion

bone loss

other side effects of estrogen depletion

mood swings

hot flashes

night sweats

[micromys]

So we often get spiders along with our cricket shipments. And given we get 70,000 crickets a week, that can add up to a lot of spiders. And sometimes those spiders are black widows! (Sometimes a lot of black widows.)

We have a standing request from the Insect Zoo to give them any black widows that look particularly nice. And today I encountered a lady who was just that! So I put her in our black widow transport cup, to hand her over to the Insect Zoo. My favorite thing about her wasn’t how pretty she was, though. It was that the entire time in the cup, she stood next to the drawing…

…and posed.

[arachnophanatic]

She lives on my patio and so far only comes out at night. I’m calling her Sheba.

(Western black widow / Latrodectus hesperus)

[questionableratatouille00]

HEY IDEA

I don’t know if it’s been used or done before

but a trigger for Bucky could be the sound of a blender or a mixer. Like the wrrrrrrr sound. I feel like the electric chair thing he was in would’ve made some kinda noise, right? like, right before the things pressed against his head and electrocuted him, he would’ve been able to hear whatever noise it made

tagging ships so artists/writers can see and use this if they want

[rarilee33]

if you liked Synnøve Macody Lund in Saw X as Cecilia, you might want to watch Black Widows, the 2016 Scandinavian tv show where she plays Johanne who is, for all intents and purposes, very much obviously in love with her best friend Rebecka (they do not actually kiss... but they should've)

their friend Kira is also There

[black-salt-cage]

ଘ(੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ♡‧₊˚

[insomniac-jay]

Black Widows aka Lourdes's parasocial polycule

@mayameanderings

[sunny-rants]

[judascr4dle]

Oh ya ummm...black widows doodles.....yeaeeaaahhhh

[captainofamillionlittletimes]

Yelena Belova is canonically aroace pass it on

[missmarvelobsession]

[thor-is-trans-and-pan-he-told-me]

guys I need spiders to take inspiration from would y'all mind giving me some spider suggestions

this is for an oc btw

[arachnophanatic]

Western black widow / Latrodectus hesperus!

It’s a rare occurrence for me to catch an adult female hanging out in broad daylight (i.e. not shoved so deep in a crevice that I can’t see more than a couple of her legs poking out). I could even get proof of her red hourglass this time; in the second photo you can mostly see it through the webbing.