SPIDERS!!!!BY: DARYA

BLACK WIDOW SPIDER

Common name: Black widow

Scientific name: Latrodectus mactans

FAST FACTS

Length: 1.5 cm

Weight: 1g.

Cell type: Eukaryotic

Nutrition type: Heterotrophic

Reproduction type: Sexual

Kingdom AnimaliaPhylum ArthropodaClass ArachnidaOrder AraneaeFamily Theridiidae

Genus LatrodectusSpecies mactans

Distribution of the Black Widow Spider

-Temperate Region - Middle East/Asia

-Australia -Americas

-Parts of Africa

Distribution of a black widow spider.

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Reproduction of a Black Widow Spider

After a male makes his “sperm-web” in which he puts on semen, then he goes to find a female. Then the female eats the male and takes in the sperm, which can last her all her life and enough to reproduce many times. When the baby spiders come out form the cotton-like web, sac, they climb onto something tall like a tree and then sit there until the wind carries them away. There could be about 250 eggs at a time.

Cotton-like web (sac) holds over 250 eggs Finger nail size.

Fun Facts

Only female spiders are really dangerous and males are just too small and weak to bite through the skin.

Black widow venom 15 times more powerful than rattle snake venom.

Some Native American tribes tipped their arrows in the black widow venom.

You can tell a female from a male by a bright red hourglass shape ( males have small white spots)

FUN FACTS

• Males only live about 1-3 months, but females could live up to 3 years.

• Black widow silk was at one time used in military gun sights because of its strength and thickness.

• Spiders construct webs in hollow logs and under loose bark or stones, in small trees and under bushes

• Black widow spiders mainly eat other insects

Bibliography• Miles, Arlene. "Black Widow Spider Classification | EHow.com." EHow | How to Videos,

Articles & More - Trusted Advice for the Curious Life | EHow.com. Web. 22 Sept. 2011. <http://www.ehow.com/info_8317216_black-widow-spider-classification.html>.

• "Black Widow Spider: Pictures, Information, Classification and More." Everything About. Web. 22 Sept. 2011. <http://www.everythingabout.net/articles/biology/animals/arthropods/arachnids/spiders/black_widow_spider/>.

• "Black Widow Spider, HYG-2061A-04." Ohioline. Web. 23 Sept. 2011. <http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2061A.html>.

• "Black Widow Spiders." Black Widow Spiders. Web. 21 Sept. 2011. <http://venomous-

spiders.nanders.dk/blackwidow.htm>. • "Black Widow Spiders, Black Widow Spider Pictures, Black Widow Spider Facts - National

Geographic." Animals - Animal Pictures - Wild Animal Facts - Nat Geo Wild - National Geographic. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2011. <http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/black-widow-spider/>.

• Bailey, Jacqui. Amazing animal facts. New York: Dk Pub., 2003. Print. • Predator showdown: 30 unbelievably awesome predator vs. predator face-offs!. New York:

Scholastic, 2011. Print.

Bibliography• Shulman, Mark, Fung Ming Ma, and Don L. Curry. The planet's most dangerous creatures. Des

Moines Iowa: Meredith Books, 2008. Print. • 100 Most Dangerous Things on the Planet. Chicago: Paw Prints, 2009. Print. • The spider book: a manual for the study of the spiders and their near relatives, the scorpions,

pseudoscorpions, whip-scorpions, harvestmen, and other members of the class arachnida, found in America North of Mexico, with analytical keys for their classification and popular accounts of their habits. New York: Comstock Publishing Associates, 19711948. Print.

• Facklam, Howard, and Margery Facklam. Insects. Brookfeild : Twenty-First Century Books, 1994. Print.