🕷️Latrodectus mactans
Latrodectus mactans, known as southern black widow or simply black widow, and the shoe-button spider, is a 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 mates after reproduction. The species is native to North America. The venom can cause pain and other symptoms, but is rarely fatal to healthy humans.
Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
The IUCN Red List has not assessed Latrodectus mactans yet.
- Body mass
- 0 kg
- Body length
- 0.01 m
- Shoulder height
- not recorded
- Top speed
- not recorded
- Bite force
- not recorded
- Maximum lifespan
- not recorded
Everything we know about the Latrodectus mactans
Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.
Body mass0 kgfield measurementWorld Spider Trait DatabaseOther figures ↓Hide ↑
Herberstein et al. 2022; Greenstone & Bennett 1980
Source: World Spider Trait Database · Pekar et al. 2021, Database 2021:baab064 · CC BY
Figures vary
- 0 kgWorld Spider Trait DatabasePekar et al. 2021, Database 2021:baab064Herberstein et al. 2022; Greenstone & Bennett 1980
- 0 kgWorld Spider Trait DatabasePekar et al. 2021, Database 2021:baab064Herberstein et al. 2022; Greenstone & Bennett 1980
Body length0.01 maverageOther figures ↓Hide ↑
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; Barrion & Litsinger 1995
- Female0.01 mWorld Spider Trait DatabasePekar et al. 2021, Database 2021:baab064Lyons et al 2025 trait data; Kaston 1972
Volume l0 LaverageDetails ↓Hide ↑
Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.
average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.
Not recorded for Latrodectus mactans yet: shoulder height, top speed, bite force, maximum lifespan.
Family tree
- kingdomAnimalia
- ›phylumArthropoda
- ›classArachnida
- ›orderAraneae
- ›familyTheridiidae
- ›genusLatrodectus
- ›speciesLatrodectus mactans
- orderSpiders · Araneae
- superfamilyAraneoidea
- familyTheridiidae
- genusLatrodectus
All 8 branches ↓Fewer branches ↑
- kingdomMetazoa
- phylumArthropoda
- subphylumChelicerata
- orderSpiders · Araneae
- suborderAraneomorphae
- superfamilyAraneoidea
- familyTheridiidae
- genusLatrodectus
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