Black widow spiders are a wide variety of spiders, consisting of 31 species. These species range all over the world from Asia, to South America, to Africa, to the United States, except for colder regions. Although these species are known for their infamous red hourglass, not all species have it. Instead, they may have other red markings or lack markings altogether. Females are usually black and red, males are gray to brown. Female black widows are 38 mm in length and 6.4 mm in diameter. Males are only a quarter of this size.
Black widows are called black widows because after a female mates, the male is usually eaten by the female. Although this occurs regularly, male are sometimes fast enough to escape. Often times, they will mate with another female.
A misconception that people have with black widows are that they are very aggressive and bite whenever they get the chance. In fact, they are solitary spiders that will not bite unless bothered. Another misconception is that their bite is deadly. Their bites is almost never deadly. A black widow bite causes muscle aches, nausea, and difficulty breathing. These ailments rarely cause injury- let alone death.
The only things that should fear black widows are other bugs. When another bug crawls, or flies, into their web, the black widow spins them into the web, and injects an enzyme into their body. This enzyme causes thier insides to liquify.
We tend to prejudge things by what they look like, for example, with the black widow spider. I think that we can only judge things once we get to know them. Something that could seem bad or harmful, may acually turn out differently.
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