Northern black widow
| Northern black widow | ||||||||||||
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Northern black widow, female |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Latrodectus variolus | ||||||||||||
| Walckenaer , 1837 |
The northern black widow ( Latrodectus variolus ) is a spider from the family of the crested web spiders (Theridiidae).
description
The females are 9 to 11 millimeters long, the males only 4 to 5 millimeters. The basic color of the females is black. The characteristic red drawing on the abdomen of the abdomen resembles the outline of an hourglass , as in some other species of real widows . However, it differs from that of the other species of black widow in that it is divided into two parts. The two red trapezoids on the belly side are therefore not fused together. A row of red dots on the abdomen is also noticeable in the females of the Northern Black Widow .
The basic color of the males is also black, but these have four diagonal stripes on each side of the abdomen. The young animals also show such stripes.
Similar species
The northern black widow was previously considered a subspecies of the southern black widow ( Latrodectus mactans ), which it closely resembles. The southern and western black widow ( Latrodectus hesperus ), which also only had the status of a subspecies in the past, are somewhat larger than the northern black widow. The main distinguishing features are the hourglass drawings, which do not have separate red marks in the two sister species. The red dots on the abdomen also do not exist in Latrodectus mactans and Latrodectus hesperus . As a result, the northern black widow could be confused with the European black widow ( Latrodectus tredecimguttatus ), with whom it has no common distribution area.
Occurrence
The northern black widow is native to the east coast of the North American continent. It occurs from northern Florida in the USA to southeastern Canada , but its main distribution is the northern part of this area. It lives in undisturbed forests, in tree stumps and on stone walls.
Way of life
The northern black widow feeds on insects , including beetles and grasshoppers , and can also prey on smaller vertebrates and other spiders.
literature
- Charles A. Walckenaer: Histoire naturelle des insectes. Aptères. Vol. 1, pp. 1–682, Paris 1837 (first description)
