Black Widow making web🕷️

Photo: Steve Ryan · CC BY-SA 2.0

SpeciesAraneaeTheridiidae
Arthropods

🕷️Latrodectus hesperus

Latrodectus hesperus Chamberlin & Ivie, 1935

Latrodectus hesperus, the western black widow spider or western widow, is a venomous spider species found in western regions of North America. The female's body is 14–16 mm in length and is black, often with an hourglass-shaped red mark on the lower abdomen. This "hourglass" mark can be red, yellow, and on rare occasions, white. The male of the species is around half this length, and generally a beige color with lighter striping on the abdomen. The population was previously described as a subspecies of Latrodectus mactans, and it is closely related to the northern species Latrodectus variolus. The species, as with others of the genus, build irregular or "messy" webs. Unlike the spiral webs or the tunnel-shaped webs of some other spiders, the strands of a Latrodectus' web have no obvious overall organization.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Measurements
1
Also called
Western Black Widow, Western Black Widow spider, Western Black Widow Spider
Conservation status
Not evaluated

The IUCN Red List has not assessed Latrodectus hesperus yet.

Key measurements
Body mass
not recorded
Body length
0.01 m
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
not recorded
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Latrodectus hesperus

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body length
0.01 maverage
Other figures ↓

Species-level value synthesised as the mean of: female.

By sex

  • Female0.01 mWorld Spider Trait DatabasePekar et al. 2021, Database 2021:baab064Spider morphometric and foraging traits; Chamberlin & Ivie 1935b
  • Female0.02 mWorld Spider Trait DatabasePekar et al. 2021, Database 2021:baab064Spider morphometric and foraging traits; Levy & Amitai 1983
  • Female0.02 mWorld Spider Trait DatabasePekar et al. 2021, Database 2021:baab064Spider morphometric and foraging traits; Levy & Amitai 1983
  • Female0.01 mWorld Spider Trait DatabasePekar et al. 2021, Database 2021:baab064Spider morphometric and foraging traits; Levy & Amitai 1983

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Latrodectus hesperus yet: body mass, shoulder height, top speed, bite force, maximum lifespan.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumArthropoda
  3. ›classArachnida
  4. ›orderAraneae
  5. ›familyTheridiidae
  6. ›genusLatrodectus
  7. ›speciesLatrodectus hesperus
Full lineage
  1. orderSpiders · Araneae
  2. superfamilyAraneoidea
  3. familyTheridiidae
  4. genusLatrodectus
All 8 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. subphylumChelicerata
  4. orderSpiders · Araneae
  5. suborderAraneomorphae
  6. superfamilyAraneoidea
  7. familyTheridiidae
  8. genusLatrodectus
More

More about the Latrodectus hesperus

In other languages
ツヤクロゴケグモ (ja), westelijke zwarte weduwe (nl), Latrodectus hesperus (pt), Westliche Schwarze Witwe (de), Latrodectus hesperus (vi), Latrodectus hesperus (fr) … and 15 more languages
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