Have you ever seen a bright red spider? There’s one called the Red Widow Spider, and it’s part of the ‘widow spider’ family. This special spider lives in just a few places in the United States. Stick around, and we’ll share fun facts about them!
After mating, the female widow spider lays the eggs wrapped in a spherical silken sac around ½ inch in diameter. The sac can contain anything between 200 and 400 eggs. Interestingly, a female can yield four to nine such sacs in a single summer. The mother takes care of the eggs by guarding the sacs while moving from one place to another within the web itself in order to maintain uniform humidity and temperature.
It takes almost eight to ten days from the time the eggs were laid for the spiderlings to hatch. The young spiders go through one single molting process right inside the sac before emerging after around two to four weeks. The baby spiders disperse with a strand of silk by ballooning on air currents. The juveniles need to go through seven more molts before attaining the stage of sexual maturity.
Like the other members of the genus Latrodectus, the red widows are indeed venomous; however, there has been no record of a bite of this species in the medical literature. They are mostly harmless to people.
Red Widow spiders can bite. If they do, it’s because they’re scared or startled. The bite might sting a bit, but it’s rare for them to bite humans.
| Lifespan | Most females live about nine months but the males die after a couple of weeks or a little more |
| Distribution | Central and southern Florida, USA |
| Habitat | Mostly in the sand dunes dominated by sand pine vegetation; mostly make their webs in the palmetto bushes |
| Common predators | Birds of prey, larger spiders and reptiles |
| Diet | Flies and other small creatures and arthropods that are caught in their webs |
Image Credit: I.pinimg.com, Static.dailysportx.com, Floridabackyardspiders.com, Bugguide.net
Have you ever seen a bright red spider? There’s one called the Red Widow Spider, and it’s part of the ‘widow spider’ family. This special spider lives in just a few places in the United States. Stick around, and we’ll share fun facts about them!
After mating, the female widow spider lays the eggs wrapped in a spherical silken sac around ½ inch in diameter. The sac can contain anything between 200 and 400 eggs. Interestingly, a female can yield four to nine such sacs in a single summer. The mother takes care of the eggs by guarding the sacs while moving from one place to another within the web itself in order to maintain uniform humidity and temperature.
It takes almost eight to ten days from the time the eggs were laid for the spiderlings to hatch. The young spiders go through one single molting process right inside the sac before emerging after around two to four weeks. The baby spiders disperse with a strand of silk by ballooning on air currents. The juveniles need to go through seven more molts before attaining the stage of sexual maturity.
Like the other members of the genus Latrodectus, the red widows are indeed venomous; however, there has been no record of a bite of this species in the medical literature. They are mostly harmless to people.
Red Widow spiders can bite. If they do, it’s because they’re scared or startled. The bite might sting a bit, but it’s rare for them to bite humans.
| Lifespan | Most females live about nine months but the males die after a couple of weeks or a little more |
| Distribution | Central and southern Florida, USA |
| Habitat | Mostly in the sand dunes dominated by sand pine vegetation; mostly make their webs in the palmetto bushes |
| Common predators | Birds of prey, larger spiders and reptiles |
| Diet | Flies and other small creatures and arthropods that are caught in their webs |
Image Credit: I.pinimg.com, Static.dailysportx.com, Floridabackyardspiders.com, Bugguide.net
James Lambrou on January 29, 2019.
Dr. Watuwa James
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